A review by kez91
The Whole Thing Together by Ann Brashares

2.0

2.5* *some spoilers* I was really excited for this book because I love the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series, and I enjoyed Brashares other YA books, but this one fell pretty flat. I though going in to it that we would mainly see the story from Ray and Sasha's perspectives, but we also see the story from the view of their 3 half sisters, and I feel like in the third person style used this is too many perspectives and it gets a bit confusing, and also means that I didn't feel connected to any of the characters because they were so fleetongly focused on before moving on to someone else. I didn't like the way the short email sections between Sasha and Ray seemed to be inserted randomly in the middle of chapters, and to be honest I didn't like Ray at all- he spends a lot of the book telling himself not to be pervy, and commenting on girls appearances, and it is quite off putting. I also wasn't convinced by Sash and Ray's apparent attraction to each other. They started to consider each other 'differently' from the start even though they'd never met, because they felt 'familiar' and because Ray liked the comfort he felt when he could smell Sasha's scent in their shared room. I found this really weird- I don't think it's realistical at all that you'd start to consider someone who is a familial connection in a romantic way because you like the way they make your shared room smell and because they have decent books. And then they met in person once (in a scene where Ray kinda just goes on about how great Sasha's body is). After that first meeting they just think about each other and their attraction all the time, in Ray's case he mainly just thinks about how womanly Sasha's body is, and they and their sisters keep repeating that they're 'not actually related'. Obviously this is meant to convince readers that its not weird that they have a thing going on because they're not related by blood, and maybe if they'd met as total strangers that would have worked, but the whole sharing a room, sharing half a family etc makes it still weird to me. And at the end when the older sisters are watching them hold hands and basically thinking it's cute and it's them moving forward together, I found that really strange, because I think if I had a half brother and half sister, I would find it weird for them to get together, and not just be fully supportive straight away. Even though Ray and Sasha don't share parents, I think their sisters would still consider them connected in terms of having shared family because they do share sisters. Also, Ray and Sasha never connected on an emotional level, the emails they sent were so generic and led to no sense of connection whatsoever, so their relationship was just so unbelievable and one dimensional and purely related to physical attraction, which is ridiculous considering they met once before they devided they loved each other. The sisters stories I found more interesting, mainly Matties with her predictable my-dad-might-not-be-my-dad drama, but not enough time was spent on any one character to give them much depth, so it was a bit disapointing. The tragedy at the end (I won't say specifically who) was also so random, (and very obviously and annoyingly foreshadowed for the two pages before it happened in the way that character was referenced) and because the story flicked back and forth between so many characters that I didn't feel an emotional connection to any of them, I just didn't really care. I get that that was meant to be the big tragic event they needed to realise they were being petty and holding on to the past, and to bring their families together, but it was just not well done.

I also didn't like the way race was approached. It was mentioned I think in a way that attempted to progress Matties storyline, because she didn't look dark like her dad or sisters, and it was touched on a few times but I don't think it was done well. The girls father dismisses his culture completely, and although it is indicated that the girls acknowledge their family history, it's never really explored, so its seems really unnecessary to even include that cultural background if it isn't going to progress beyond Mattie wondering why she is fair and blond and not dark like her dad and sisters. Also there was a comment (or joke maybe) about a burka that was so out of place and unnecessary I have no idea why it was included.

Overall, would not recommend because I was let down by this book. The characters and relationships just didn't have enough depth, the writing style was awkward, and there were just too many unbelievable scenarios.