By Mary Shelley

“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.” – Goodreads

I’ve heard of this one before and it seemed really cute, so I immediately picked it up at the library yesterday. I’ve been struggling to get into longer and more complex fantasies or sci-fis, so I usually go straight for the sweet girlhood coming-of-age novels. When it comes to entertainment and relatability, the fact that I finished this in about three hours total should tell you all you need to know. I picked it up immediately after getting home from the library and was done by that evening.

To be honest, the plot was the weakest part of this book, but that wasn’t really the point. Some of the girls had huge, insane stuff happen to them in their character arcs, while others had really silly family miscommunications and stuff. Not much connected their stories and they didn’t think about each other much other than through letters dispersed throughout (which were honestly pretty confusing because oftentimes the writer of the letter and the person it was for weren’t even the characters who had just had a POV section). It felt like the girls had been set up as best friends only to not really interact for a whole summer? And only the thread of the magic pants kept them together. A couple of the plot devices felt weak and forced. Luckily, the story truly shone through the characters.

The author mastered the ability to sound like a young teenage girl, with a different voice for each character. She pulled off a bitter and lonely Carmen, a silly and ditzy Tibby, a shy yet confident Lena, and the energetic but reckless Bridget. Though the transitions between character POVs were nonexistent, you could always tell who was speaking because of their distinct voice. At first, the style confused me. I kind of thought the story structure would follow the path of the pants – the “lens” would be on whichever character had the pants at the time – but instead it just jumped around seemingly at random. I quickly got used to it, however, and I enjoyed the parallels between characters. It was unrealistic how different all the girls were, but it made for a fun read that could be relatable to a variety of young women.

The characters were the highlight of this book. Each girl had such a different personality and passion. Their personal arcs were explored in really interesting ways, and the girls went through a lot of events that can have a big maturing effect on a young person. The author gave a lot of background and exposition on the characters in such a subtle in fun way. She slipped truth about their pasts or family lives into sarcastic teen comments or the way they responded to certain events. Brashares did a great job of “showing, not telling” when it came to the characters and their growth.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was a creative, fun, and relatable read for girls who might be experiencing some of the same growing pains as the main characters. This lighthearted and funny novel explores how four different women can have completely different lives and concerns and yet still be best friends through it all. If you love stories that celebrate friendship and girlhood while still feeling silly and realistic, you’ll love this one.