Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood

Ann Brashares

4 girls were united by birth dates in September. 2 summers ago, they found the pair of travelling pants that would change their summer. This is the last summer they have together before college.

Thank goodness this was a talking book or I never would have gotten through it. That’s not to say it was a good book, or that the reader was fabulous though.

The reader failed in my mind. I often couldn’t remember which of the four girls were speaking. The boys could have been a bit more male sounding too. This lead to complications when I couldn’t remember which girl wanted to do what. B and Carmen were easy to keep track of because that were in unique situations. But the other two? I can barely remember their names now. Tibby and uh, someone else?

This is a novel aimed at teenage girls. Specifically probably younger teenage girls in America. I can’t see anyone but a naive girl enjoying it. It’s all about first love, veiled thinly with concerns about going to college.

I can see this book not going down well with some parents. There are some almost sex scenes, sex is alluded to, and two opposite sex characters go swimming together in their underwear. Not to mention a childbirth scene.

I can’t remember the statistics of people being queer, by I thought it was something like 1/7. So where are the queer people I. This novel? One of the four girls could have been gay. Younger gay people need the opperyniruvti read about queer people just like themselves, those that have friends. A gripe I have with other queer books is that the main character is almost always lonely. Some have to be well adjusted with friends! I think authors are missing the minority that could make their novel a cult book.

The Pants don’t seem to feature prominently. I don’t think any if them actually rely on The Pants. They just use them as an excuse to not lie. How hard is it really?

I remember reading the first book in this series in high school after a girly friend raved about it. I’m pretty sure I enjoyed it at that point, being able to ignore the often repetitive dialogue. Perhaps I’d better reread it and see if I can rescue this series in my mind.