Ann Brashares

Carmen, Tibby, Lena, and Bridget are back for another summer wearing "The Pants." Carmen continues to be a brat. I think she is supposed to be seen as the fiery Puerto Rican. In The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants she threw a rock through a window because she was mad at her dad for having a girlfriend and starting a new family. In Second Summer of the Traveling Pants it's her mom's happiness she can't bear to witness.
Tibby's situation was a little more believable. Away at college and show more desperate forget a friend who died of leukemia, she shuns her old life and adopts the crappy attitudes of a couple of loner kids in her class. This, I know a little something about. Sadly, I am guilty of changing my personality to impress new people.
Bridget is away in Alabama, working for her estranged grandmother and trying to escape an unfortunate event in The sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Gram thinks Bridget is a lonely girl named Gilda and with Bridget's weight gain and dyed hair Grandma is easily fooled.
Lena has the simplest yet most complicated story. After leaving Greece she couldn't stand to be away from Kostos so she broke up with him. Doesn't make sense, but that's perfect teenage logic for you. Who hasn't done something dramatic thinking it was the only choice? Kostos accepts the breakup until he sees Lena and professes his undying love for her...until something else happens.
All four girls have moments when The Pants don't work for them. The magic just isn't there and they have to rely on growing up to see the solution. the real magic happens when they begin to see their mothers as human beings. show less

EDIT: Mayo, 2015

No puede creer que tuve que leer este libro para estudiarlo, y analizarlo, y ni siquiera entró en el final que di XD


Reseña Original: Diciembre, 2014


3.5

Muy entretenido. No pierde tiempo ni párrafos con amores imposibles como eje de la vida de los adolescentes, sino que se toma el trabajo de centrar la historia, no sobre el mundo de una quinceañera girando en torno al resto y como los demás reaccionan a ella, sino más bien sobre como reaccionan las adolescentes a sus show more propias acciones. Y va más allá incluso: creo que no es solamente una historia sobre una amistad inquebrantable (no que están amigas no tengan esa clase de relación) sino más bien sobre cuatro amigas independizándose la una de la otra, madurando como individuos más allá del refugio que les ofrece ese vínculo que nació cuando ellas mismas nacieron (las madres iban a las mismas clases de parte, por ende, las cuatro se conocen desde que estaban en la panza). Es la historia sobre el primer verano en el que empiezan a moverse solas, sin el sostén de otras personas; el momento en que empiezan a conocerse, realmente, a sí mismas.

Lo mejor de la novela son sus protagonistas. Son mujeres de todo tipo, mujeres fuertes, cobardes, imperfectas, ambiciosas, pacíficas, tranquilas, felices, infelices, enamoradizas, no enamoradizas, inteligentes... mujeres de todos los colores... reales. No puedo imaginarme a alguien leyendo esta novela (por más boba que pueda parecerles) sin decir: Mirá, esta es como mengana!! o Conocí a una piba que era así, tal cual o , hasta capaz: Yo hacía lo mismo cuando tenía esa edad... estás en peligro de leer esto y que se te escape un comentario de ese calibre.

Creo que está escrito para provocar esa precisa reacción en sus lectores y, por más calculador que pueda ser, la autora pega justo en el blanco.

Tenemos cuatro personalidad aparentemente opuestas, ubicadas cada una en cuatro lugares completamente distintos: la "Latina" Carmen en una casa suburbana; la cuasi-Amy-March, Lena, introvertida y hermosa, de vacaciones en Grecia con abuelos desconocidos; la maníaca (?) Bridget en un campamento de soccer, su personalidad probablemente en camino a repetir ciertos aspectos de la personalidad de su madre (supongo que se verá en los libros que sigan), Bridget, que no conoce más que blancos y negros, nada de grises; y Tibby, la típica rebelde en desarrollo, que se anima a muchas cosas, pero no a la gente que puede llegar a importarle, termina en Wallman lidiando con la clase de gente que más le molesta y lista para filmar su primer documental.

Cada lugar funciona casi como un campo de batalla, donde las chicas son puestas para enfrentar, de algún modo, aquello a lo que le temen; es decir, son sacadas de la zona de comfort, para lidiar con lo desconocido; más o menos en una metáfora sobre el crecimiento y la madurez de golpe, frente a lo inesperado: ya sea un amor sorpresivo, una nueva familia, una amistad inesperada y una derrota contra una misma.

Si bien es un libro un poco superficial en varios aspectos, y también propenso a resolver conflictos serios a las apuradas (sobre todo llegando al final), es muy divertido y emotivo-- no sólo en las partes obvias Hellooooo , chica de doce años con cancer??, sino también en escenas donde se trata la relación a punto de romperse entre una hija y un padre; un momento inesperadamente desgarrador con una chica cayendo de golpe de una ilusión gloriosa tras pasar una decepcionante primera vez con un chico más grande... entre otras cosas.

Hubo algunas cosas, ciertos aspectos con los que no estoy de acuerdo, que creo deberían haberse tratado con más seriedad o realismo. Sin embargo, ninguno demasiado ofensivo o inaceptable al punto de la ira.

El final se resolvió muuuuy a los pedos teniendo en cuenta el tiempo que se usó para armar los conflictos, toda la ira, la tristeza y demás. Creo que la autora tendría que haber agregado al menos veinte páginas más para escribir un desenlace más fuerte y sincero. También me parece que hacía falta más discusiones entre Carmen y el papá, ya que el que se haya resuelto todo -la envidia, los celos, la irrupción de esta nueva familia suburbana en la vida de los Lowell- casi mágicamente se me hace poco creíble; hacía falta mucho más tiempo para rearmar esa relación.

Sin embargo, el epílogo me pareció lo suficientemente impactante en el sentido de que no lo es. Los últimos párrafos engloban a la perfección la nada misma; el vacío que deja el después de la euforia y la depresión.

Las cuatro amigas, juntas de nuevo, pero sin nada que decir.

Muy bueno.





---------------------------------------
[Reseña pendiente]

Al fin terminado!! Tarde, teniendo en cuenta que el examen es la semana que viene. Tarde, pero seguro. (?) show less

First sentence: Let me ask you this: What's the worst thing you've ever done? Really think about it. Well, multiply your thing by a billion and you don't even get close. Sorry to brag. It's just...your thing? It's the Cheeto-dust thumbprint you left on the basement sofa. It's an ant's toe you stepped on. And then you said, "Sorry!" and the ant went, "No worries, mate!" Because the ant's British, I don't know.

My thoughts (preview): Ever been HOOKED on a premise????? It doesn't happen all show more that often, though it does happen. This is the case with Westfallen. The premise had me at HELLO. Reading the synopsis raised my expectations immeasurably, and it did NOT, I repeat did NOT disappoint.

Premise/plot: Six kids working together (with the best intentions)--separated by time--manage to destroy life as we know it. Shocked I was able to sum up an entire book in one sentence? Me too.

Henry, Lukas, and Frances were at one time best, best, best friends though in recent years they've grown apart--far apart. Alice, Lawrence, and Artie are friends as well. These six friends become connected by a radio.

Alice "saves" her brother's radio from the trash. It's broken and her brother, Robbie, is gone--presumably for the war. Her two friends, Lawrence and Artie, are near by and interested in seeing if they can fix the radio.

Henry is burying his gerbil, Zeus, when he discovers a long-buried radio. His (former) friends are there for the funeral. All are interested in this buried "treasure" of sorts.

All six kids are SHOCKED when the radio works. The two sets of friends refer to themselves as "Mars" and "Jupiter." It takes time for them to realize that the new friends they've made aren't living in the same year. Henry, Lukas and Frances are in 2023....and Alice, Lawrence, and Artie are in 1944. Both are in the same house, same street, same city.

Will innocent casual conversation lead to the unwinding of the universe?????

My thoughts: I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED THIS ONE. Mostly. I will say that the CLIFF HANGER ending was while not a huge surprise a bit disappointing. If the cliff hanger leads to a book two, then YES PLEASE. If it does NOT lead to a book two then readers everywhere have been robbed.

I loved the premise. I loved the characters. I loved the plot. This is one I could easily see myself reading again and again and again. show less

I am surprised to admit that I really liked this book. I thought it was going to be stupid, filled with fake, boy-crazy, fashion-crazy teenagers, but this wasn't the case. Instead, I found a book full of heart and great, highly relatable teenage angst. (Though it is a little bit of an "issues" book as my friend Peta likes to say :) )

The story in a nutshell is about four fifteen-year-old best friends who have to split up for summer vacation. Just before they leave, they all try on a pair of show more blue jeans that turns out to fit each of them in different (but flattering) ways, and because this is the best pair of pants ever they decide to mail them to each other back and forth all summer long. The story follows each girl during their summer vacation and shows their letters back and forth to each other. Each of the characters feels like a real person with interesting problems and at the end, despite the fact that the girls spend most of the summer apart, you come away with a keen sense of the importance of their friendships to their lives.

Of course the book had its faults. For example, because the story is told from four different points of view, it is a little bit hard to keep track of who is who at first. I found myself having to rely on their stereotypes (i.e., "the pretty one", "the jock") to be able to keep them straight in my head. Also, the POV shifts very quickly from character to character, sometimes only after a few paragraphs, so just as you are getting used to being inside one character's head, you are suddenly forced to dive into another one.

I did like most of the girls, like Lena ("the pretty one") who spends her vacation in Greece, Carmen ("the half-Puerto Rican one") who goes to stay with her father for the summer, and Bridget ("the jock") who goes away to summer camp along with her raging hormones. But the one story line that I really disliked was that of Tibby ("the...other one") who spends the whole summer with a pre-teen girl named Bailey, who has cancer. Of course Bailey, despite her initial cranky wise-cracking ways, turns out to be an old soul who appreciates life and can figure out the best parts of people in an instant. Bailey teaches Tibby not to judge people based on their initial appearances. Now I have no trouble with Tiibby learning something from this experience--her friend has a life-threatening condition after all-- but I Bailey just seemed too good to be true, the stereotype of a kid with cancer. Why does she have to be so wise and good? She's still just a kid after all. The author's attempts to make Bailey realistic are not done convincingly.

In any case, this was a good book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes YA chick-lit done well. I might even read the next one and am now kind of curious to see the movie. show less