the sisterhood of the traveling pants novel

Called Sisterhood Everlasting, it’s set ten years after the fourth book, and the Septembers have grown apart. So I was surprised when, last year, I realised that there’s a fifth Sisterhood book. I even had the first film on DVD, although I never managed to watch the second.

I enjoyed them all, although I considered Forever in Blue the weakest of the four, and would happily recommend them to anyone.

The fourth book was published in 2007, when I was sixteen (although I was probably seventeen by the time I read it), and I considered the series done, a happy reminder of something my sisters and I shared, sitting in Sinéad’s bookcase. Over the first four sisterhood books, all of which are classed as YA fiction, we see the girls grow up, fall in love, have sex, make friends, lose friends, lose family members, gain family members, start college, find their callings, and stick closely to their September sisters. Clearly a sign, the pants were what would hold the four of them together over their summer, passed between the girls like a magic bonding, a tangible sign of their sisterhood. The summer they all turned sixteen, the first they would ever spend apart, they found a pair of magic pants, which fit all four of them – from Tibby’s short stature to Lena’s classic Greek beauty, Carmen’s Latina ass to Bridget’s athletic build – not just fit them, but made them all look beautiful. Lena, Tibby, Carmen, and Bridget were all born within seventeen days of each other, their mothers meeting at an aerobics class. The Sisterhood series follows four very different girls, who are the best of friends since birth. Sisterhood Everlasting – all by Ann Brashares.

In any case, I’m starting at the end, when I should start at the beginning! It’s set ten years after the fourth one, and it promised some drastic changes… So I was surprised when, last year, having discovered GoodReads, I realised that there was a fifth sisterhood book.

The first four sisterhood books were a complete arc, four books, four girls, four summers, and they resolved (or so I thought) the YA series which I was so fond of (although I always felt that Lena got shafted with the same storyline four times). The Sisterhood series is one of those series of books which both my sisters and I all ready – so much so, that I’m not actually sure which books belong to whom in the series.

The sisterhood of the traveling pants novel