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seraphjewel 's review for:
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
by Ann Brashares
Cute coming-of-age story involving four close girlfriends who are spending their first summer apart. I watched the movie of this first years ago, and it remains a beloved movie of mine. From what I remember of it, the movie stayed faithful to the book in a lot of aspects. Some lines are taken directly from the page. The only thing is I don't remember Bridget having a twin brother or Lena's younger sister Effie in the movie, but the brother was unimportant to the plot and Effie basically acted to just drive Lena's plot forward.
I guess the main criticism I would give this book is how it makes some of the girls seem at fault for certain things. In Lena's storyline, she goes swimming in her underwear and Kostas sees her. She's understandably upset by this and assumes he was stalking her/watching her swim naked. She has every right to feel violated, but she instead feels guilty and puts herself in the wrong for it. It does blow out of proportion as her grandparents assume the worst, but he still saw her in a vulnerable state without her consent. And she goes on to apologize to HIM for going into "his space". Girl, he doesn't own the lake. Then again, she violates him later by watching him swim naked, so that whole thing is just uncomfortable.
Carmen's storyline has always struck a personal chord with me. There is no Latina cleaner in this but there is some underlying racism that infuriated me. I feel like the author didn't balance this out properly because Lydia did not come off well when the dressmaker was being so nasty about Carmen and Lydia said nothing to defend her. There was also the "girl who hates character for no reason" sideplot with Paul's girlfriend. Carmen was being bratty but the girlfriend didn't seem to exist for any other reason than to dislike Carmen. And I'll just say it: the set-up bothers me. How long have Al and Lydia been dating? How has he NEVER mentioned her ONCE to Carmen? Springing the engagement/wedding on her was an extreme dick move that trapped her and he never gives a good reason for doing it.
All that aside, the emotions are done so well. Each girl is clearly defined with their flaws as well as their strengths. I truly felt like I was going on their individual journeys of self-discovery and growth. It's sometimes wonderful, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes funny and sometimes somber. I'm far older than the targeted demographic but I did like it in spite of my complaints. In a weird way, these four girls feel like my friends by proxy, and I bet a lot of other girls/women who read this book feel the same way.
I guess the main criticism I would give this book is how it makes some of the girls seem at fault for certain things. In Lena's storyline, she goes swimming in her underwear and Kostas sees her. She's understandably upset by this and assumes he was stalking her/watching her swim naked. She has every right to feel violated, but she instead feels guilty and puts herself in the wrong for it. It does blow out of proportion as her grandparents assume the worst, but he still saw her in a vulnerable state without her consent. And she goes on to apologize to HIM for going into "his space". Girl, he doesn't own the lake. Then again, she violates him later by watching him swim naked, so that whole thing is just uncomfortable.
Carmen's storyline has always struck a personal chord with me. There is no Latina cleaner in this but there is some underlying racism that infuriated me. I feel like the author didn't balance this out properly because Lydia did not come off well when the dressmaker was being so nasty about Carmen and Lydia said nothing to defend her. There was also the "girl who hates character for no reason" sideplot with Paul's girlfriend. Carmen was being bratty but the girlfriend didn't seem to exist for any other reason than to dislike Carmen. And I'll just say it: the set-up bothers me. How long have Al and Lydia been dating? How has he NEVER mentioned her ONCE to Carmen? Springing the engagement/wedding on her was an extreme dick move that trapped her and he never gives a good reason for doing it.
All that aside, the emotions are done so well. Each girl is clearly defined with their flaws as well as their strengths. I truly felt like I was going on their individual journeys of self-discovery and growth. It's sometimes wonderful, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes funny and sometimes somber. I'm far older than the targeted demographic but I did like it in spite of my complaints. In a weird way, these four girls feel like my friends by proxy, and I bet a lot of other girls/women who read this book feel the same way.