There will be spoilers for the book here, so beware.
Sisterhood Everlasting is the fifth book in the Travelling Pants series by Ann Brashares. It takes place ten years after Forever in Blue, when the pants were lost and the girls were looking to their futures. I’d read somewhere that one of the girls would die in this book, but I sort of dismissed it as it seemed unlikely. I wish it had been, but sadly I was wrong. As the book begins we get a cursory back story for three of the girls. Carmen is an actress with a bit part on a weekly show, and an ass of a fiance, living in New York. Bee is in California with Eric, not doing much but still wanting to be on the move. Lena is teaching and still mostly avoiding her life. But Tibby is missing, off to Australia with Brian for a couple of years with very little contact and no visits in between. What’s going on with Tibby? The other girls are about to find out when she finally reaches out and organises a trip to Greece, where the pants were lost. But then, tragedy strikes.
I really enjoyed the earlier books, and even the first film based on them, as the friendships always seemed real, as did the characters and how they interacted and went about their lives. I didn’t feel that as much with this one, and that comes down to the death. When I heard there might be a death I did think about who I’d prefer it to be. I have favourites of course, but I figured I’d be ok with it for the most part, as long as it wasn’t Tibby. Funny, awkward, wonderful Tibby, who isn’t really like me at all, but whom I have always identified with. And, of course, it was Tibby after all. I was so sad reading that part of the book, I could hardly continue with it. And then I spent the rest of the book mostly angry with the rest of them. For thinking that Tibby would kill herself. Tibby! As the reader I don’t think I have any more information than they, her best friends, do, and yet I was able to see quite clearly that that is something she would never do, especially not in such a cruel way – inviting them all to Greece only for them to have to identify her body? You’d have to be a seriously fucked up person to do that, and even after a couple of years away I don’t think Tibby could have become that messed up. It seemed obvious to me that her letters meant that she was sick, but her friends never even thought about it. Instead they went back to their lives and did a terrible job with them, until Tibby sorted them out from beyond the grave. I think she deserved better than that.
It felt like Brashares killed off her most interesting character to give the others something to do, and then they don’t even really do anything anyway. Lena goes off and mopes about Kostos, as usual. This being a relationship of yearning and being apart and not really real at all. Bee runs away, as usual, though at least she redeemed herself slightly by finally going to find Brian. And Carmen dives into her career and wedding, ignoring her own feelings, as usual. At some point these girls need to grow up, right? If I’m honest I’d have preferred if Carmen had died, seeing as she’s the least likable of the lot. She’s selfish and self-absorbed, and I’m not sure why I’m supposed to care about her really. She’s the voice of the books in the early ones, the ‘heart’, but she’s pretty dreadful in this one. Her friend died and she’s obsessing about a phone, before having an epiphany on a train. Hers were my least favourite parts to read.
I wish it had been different. I wish they had been better and done better by Tibby. I can’t really fault the writing, as it is engaging and I really didn’t want to put it down, even when I was mad at it, but there was definitely something missing. Or someone.
