Sisterhood Everlasting (by Ann Brashares)

The fifth Traveling Pants book! I borrowed a friend's Kindle, and it is a gold mine. (She's the one who had Where'd You Go, Bernadette, along with a bunch of other books I've been wanting to read.) I'd heard this one was "depressing" so I figured someone probably died at the end. I have thoughts about that, but I will spoiler them.

So someone doesn't die at the end, but really towards the beginning, and everyone else is cast into these depths of grief that go on and on and on and on. I had to finish the book in one night because I couldn't stand to close the book when everyone was so sad. And they are sad for the vast majority of the book. So yes, depressing. Everyone in this book needed a therapist. (Carma is an actress, doesn't she have one on speed-dial?)

Other problems: it was very obvious that Tibby had a terminal illness, but none of the characters figure it out until the end of the book. Also apparently she was ravaged by disease, but her body looked normal when they went to identify it? The whole magical farmhouse in Pennsylvania with cottages for all her friends was fairly ridiculous. And I loved Bailey, but there's this weird "motherhood is the answer!" theme by the end of the book that seemed a little one-note.

The men: Eric was a saint for putting up with how Bridget treated him throughout this entire book. I can't believe there was a happy ending there. Carmen's boyfriend Jones has no redeeming qualities at all, so there's no tension there whatsoever. The Lena and Kostos story is of course old hat at this point, but it still totally got me. It was my fave. 


All that being said, it's still a pants book, which made me automatically invested in the characters and their stories. I completely felt for them, and cried at many points. Ultimately I'm glad I read it, "depressing"ness and all.