The Second Summer of the Sisterhood by Ann Brashares

Published: December 2004 (print)/14th May 2010 (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher:
 Delacorte Books/Bolinda audiobooks
Pages: 373 pages/1 disc
Narrator: Angela Goethals
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★   ★  – 3 Stars

With a bit of last summer’s sand in the pockets, the Traveling Pants and the Sisterhood that wears them embark on their 16th summer.
Bridget: Impulsively sets off for Alabama, wanting to both confront her demons about her family and avoid them all at once.
Lena: Spends a blissful week with Kostos, making the unexplainable silence that follows his visit even more painful.
Carmen: Is concerned that her mother is making a fool of herself over a man. When she discovers that her mother borrowed the Pants to wear on a date, she’s certain of it.
Tibby: Not about to spend another summer working at Wallman’s, she takes a film course only to find it’s what happens off-camera that teaches her the most.

The second summer, the second adventure of the girls and their magic pants. The jeans are out doing their thing and the girls are having adventures. This time around they aren’t as separated, Bridgette does go to Alabama, but the other three stay close by for most of the summer. Now that the Pants have been established, this book was more a continuation of their own journeys, not so much about keeping them together and close. They do all have their own problems in their lives so the Pants do act as a connection, and each girl still uses its magic for guidance.

I liked this one a little bit better than the first one. Bridgette still annoyed me at times, but she seems to have subdued and maybe growing up emotionally. She finds peace of sorts away from her suffocatingly absent family and goes on an emotional discovery which I think she needed.

Carmen is an absolute brat in this book. I can see Brashares was going for the only child/single mum whole world combo and I get it, but my goodness she was intolerable. When her world is disrupted and she is put out in the smallest way she overreacts. I feel like Carmen was meant to have learnt from the events in book one, but she hasn’t seemed to learnt anything. She mistreats people and sabotages things and for someone meant to be almost 17 it was a bit ridiculous.

The other girls had minor improvements. Tibby tries to continue her film career and seems to gain some understanding of herself and her family. Lena too has some hard lessons to face. I feel Brashares cheated with some of Lena’s story, it fell into predictability. Actually, a lot of the book felt predictable. That’s why I was surprised that Bee’s storyline was actually probably the better of the three.

It was a good story, it wasn’t amazing, it was just four little adventures that kind of overlapped at times. The format is there, the jeans, the letters, the drama. As I say, some ridiculous moments and silly things, but I’ve come to expect that from these books.

You can purchase The Second Summer of the Sisterhood via the following

Book Depository | Dymocks

Publisher | Wordery

Booktopia | Amazon Aust

The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares

Published: 11th September 2001 (print)/14th May 2010  (audio) Goodreads badge
Publisher:
 Delacorte Press/Bolinda audiobooks
Pages: 294 pages/1 disc
Narrator: Angela Goethals
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★  – 2 Stars

Carmen got the jeans at a thrift shop. They didn’t look all that great: they were worn, dirty, and speckled with bleach. On the night before she and her friends part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them. But Tibby says they’re great. She’d love to have them. Lena and Bridget also think they’re fabulous. Lena decides that they should all try them on. Whoever they fit best will get them. Nobody knows why, but the pants fit everyone perfectly. Even Carmen (who never thinks she looks good in anything) thinks she looks good in the pants. Over a few bags of cheese puffs, they decide to form a sisterhood and take the vow of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . . . the next morning, they say good-bye. And then the journey of the pants — and the most memorable summer of their lives — begins. 

Possible spoilers, I have a few thoughts to get off my chest.

I finally get around to reading this book and discover I’m not a big fan. It took a long time to get used to the audiobook version; the narrator wasn’t the best, but I kept going. I tried very hard to focus on the story and try to judge whether my displeasure was based on the narration or the story, and I do think I didn’t like the story as much as I thought I would. I even thought I should switch to the book to see if it made a different but it wouldn’t’ve.

The general story was good. The idea was sound and it is laid out well plot wise, the quotes and breaking up the POVs with letters between the girls was good (poor audio narration didn’t help with breaking up each girl’s story but that’s a different issue). I don’t know, there’re just so many questions I had through this book. Ok, so we can’t wash the magic pants, but they get sweated in, pond water gets on them, and a bunch of stuff. I can imagine after three months they’re gonna need a wash, no matter how super close and wonderful these four are as friends, gross, smelly jeans is not pleasant. Not to mention creepy moments where the 15 (but almost 16 we keep being reminded) girl is trying to seduce and bed a 19 year old. Which, I dunno, maybe if you are 15 you think is cool cause he’s older, but as a non 15 year old it’s creepy.

The language was very…creative. There’s a strong use of metaphors and descriptions, so many analogies and flowery language that seemed unnatural. When something could be stated simply it had to have a weird analogy out of the blue that seemed convoluted and unnecessary. I’m not against using these in books, it works and that’s what they’re there for, but Brashares goes over the top in my opinion, they spring up out of nowhere and there’s far too many of them.

In terms of characters, I think the only character and storyline I actually liked was Tibby. She seemed to be the only one who grew up, who changed for the better. The other three had variations of change but it was so minor it didn’t count. I didn’t like Bridgette and wasn’t a fan of her storyline, and the other two had their moments where they were ok but mostly annoyed me. But, they are only 15 in the book which I had to remind myself, but still.

I may have to rewatch the movie because I can’t even remember if it’s anything like the book. Perhaps I’ll enjoy that more.

You can purchase The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants via the following

Book Depository | Dymocks

Fishpond | Wordery

Booktopia | Amazon Aust

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Published: 5th May 2011Goodreads badge
Publisher:
 Walker Books
Pages: 216
Format: Hardcover
Genre: Fiction
★   ★   ★   ★  – 4 Stars

The monster showed up after midnight. As they do.
But it isn’t the monster Connor’s been expecting. He’s been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he’s had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments, the one with the darkness and the wind and the screaming…
This monster is something different, though. Something ancient, something wild. And it wants the most dangerous thing of all from Connor.
It wants the truth. 

I had an interesting experience reading this, I was told there’d be a dog in it, and aside from thinking about when this non-existent dog was going to show up, it was a sad and beautiful story. This is not a full Ness original, it was written based on ideas conceptualised by Siobhan Dowd. Having read nothing else by either author I had no idea what to expect but I was not disappointed.

There is so much to love about this book; I love Connor’s fierce bravery and protectiveness of his mum, I love the mystery and the suspense of waiting for the monster and the uncertainty about what it means. I even loved Connor’s frustration. Ness depicts perfectly Connor’s conscious and unconscious desire to be seen, to be punished, to be treated normally. You can sense it bubbling under the surface and Ness builds up suspense slowly with excellent pacing that makes you eagerly turn the page. Ness doesn’t state outright what is wrong with her but there are enough clues to figure it out. The bond between them is evident and Connor’s determination to keep things as they were is heartbreaking but admirable.

The edition I read was filled with wonderfully dark black and white sketches by Jim Kay (the same man who is currently illustrating Harry Potter). These illustrations reinforced the eerie, mysterious nature of the book and Connor’s interactions with the monster. They captured the nightmare feel and the mystical and Kay manages to keep it very simple but still show so much.

As a character, the monster is an intriguing one. He doesn’t seem evil, but he does seem formidable and unforgiving. I really enjoyed his interactions with Connor, and Kay brings him to life on the page wonderfully as well.

This may be a tough book for some people due to the depiction and description of experiencing cancer and the impact it has on the family, but it is also a very important story about it as well. I fully recommend this book to people, it’s a very strong story told very simply and very imaginatively.

You can purchase A Monster Calls via the following

Dymocks | Booktopia

Book Depository | BookWorld

Amazon | Amazon Aust

QBD | Fishpond

 

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

Published: 11th April 2017Goodreads badge
Publisher:
 Puffin
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★   ★   ★   ★  – 5 Stars

Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love-she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.

Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly’s totally not dying of loneliness-except for the part where she is.
Luckily, Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny, flirtatious, and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she’ll get her first kiss and she’ll get her twin back.

There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker, Reid. He’s an awkward Tolkien superfan, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right? 

There is so much to love about this book. I found myself smiling like an idiot at times, other times with just a slight constant smile because everything was so wonderful, and not even in a cheesy way. What is wonderful about this is Molly is falling for the non-typical guy. The Reid’s of the world, not the Wills like movies and books have told us in the past. WHICH I LOVE!

I am in love with Reid myself, but I am a dag who actually loves when people are in love with something and don’t care whether it’s uncool (which it very rarely is). Plus he’s a sweetie and isn’t some profound teen who has Insights and Thoughts about the world. It’s not that Will isn’t a sweetie, which is important because then you realise she isn’t just liking Reid because Will is a bad person. She likes Reid because Reid is her type of guy, Will isn’t. He’s nice, they may have been a good first boyfriend team as Molly says, but Will isn’t Molly’s type. Will was actually great, he seemed to mock his own hipsterness and he also wasn’t the guy who had Thoughts and Insight and Opinions that wowed our main girl. Albertelli did very well on that front.

Molly’s reservations are not unjust (well yes, but no). She doesn’t overreact; she doesn’t go wild and crazy in rebellion. I will admit I may have liked it more than Simon (forgive me), but I do love them both. I also know yearning for a boyfriend isn’t the be all and end all, and shouldn’t be shown to be, but I think how Albertelli shows Molly’s twenty six crushes and desire for a boyfriend is different than just wanting one. She wants to fit in, she wants to have a connection with her sister and her girlfriend. I think because Molly feels like an outsider at times she just wants what other people get seemingly so effortlessly. The sisterly relationship between Molly and Cassie is wonderful and realistic and Albertelli highlights how hard it can be being sisters and twins but also being your own people. I also like the friendships in this, they’re complicated and new and weird but it works.

There are so many positive things in this book; there is a realistic and healthy approach to teens around love, sex, body etc, also a great diversity of characters with numerous POC and queer relationships that are portrayed as normal non-occurrences. There is the inclusion of a racist character which puts things into a perfect uncomfortable position because after reading about this normal family with two mums and a lesbian daughter, plus multiple different genders and relationships one racist grandmother throws a spanner into the works and makes you realise just how dumb she is being and how ludicrous her arguments are.

There is so much I could talk about this book, the characters are incredible, the dialogue is incredible, the entire book is incredible. For every amazing moment in this book I want to mention I think of three more. There’s so much that makes this a wonderful book, not only the characters but the messages Albertelli sends out about who you are and the relationships you have. It’s a fantastic book and one everyone should read.

You can purchase The Upside of Unrequited via the following

Dymocks | Book Depository

QBD | Fishpond

BookWorld | Amazon

Wordery | Amazon Aust

Before You Forget by Julia Lawrinson

Goodreads badgePublished: 30th January 2017
Publisher:
 Penguin Random House Australia
Pages: 235
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult
★   ★   ★  – 3 Stars

Year Twelve is not off to a good start for Amelia. Art is her world, but her art teacher hates everything she does; her best friend has stopped talking to her; her mother and father may as well be living in separate houses; and her father is slowly forgetting everything. Even Amelia.

The best word I could describe this book with is sweet. It is a very sweet book, it has heart and there are some beautiful moments that hit all the right emotions and makes for a, well, sweet story.

This is a book that covers a range of mental health issues, highlighting how they affect those around them as much as it shows how it affects those that suffer from them. At its core it is also a story about love and about having a family member experience something that you will never understand completely but something that will affect you in so many ways.

Lawrinson expresses Amelia’s confusion regarding her father’s behaviour remarkably well. You understand her uncertainty and her fear about what is wrong with him, the uncertainty about what it means for the future of herself and her family.

Amelia is a character that intrigued me. Her obsession with September 11 videos is a fascinating aspect of her character and Lawrinson does a wonderful job helping the reader understand why she watches these over and over again.

One of the things I loved was how Amelia expressed herself through art. I’ve read a string of books lately with main characters who love art and it is a wonderful addition to their personality, letting their creativity show and working through any personal issues with their art is always great to read about.

One thing I did want more of is better character development of Poppy. Lawrinson makes a point of telling us that Amelia and Poppy become close friends, but we learn little to nothing about Poppy herself. She is merely a side character, one that barely gets any depth. I feel like we learn more about her mother than we do Poppy which is a shame. It felt like she was meant to be a more in-depth character, she is mentioned a lot but any real relationship didn’t come across the page.

Overall I did like this book. It has heart and it has a compelling story about change and an uncertain future. One thing I wish had been included was a picture of Amelia’s art. I did the best I could to picture it in in my mind, Lawrinson provides a lot of detail, but as I turned the final page I was silently hoping there would be the artwork for us to see. Sadly, this was not the case.

 You can purchase Before You Forget via the following

Booktopia | Dymocks

QBD | Book Depository

Amazon | A&R Bookworld

 

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