Sisterhood Everlasting - Part 1

Okay, I am so excited to get into this book, you have no idea. My parents were kind and bought this book for me off my Amazon wish list over a year ago for my birthday, and there it sat on my bedside stand until now. How could I have waited so long to catch up with and find out what happens to these four wonderful girls with whom I feel I shared so much of my childhood? I guess maybe it's a girl thing, but when I read the original series of four books, I felt so connected to the characters and saw bits and pieces of myself and my friends in each of them . . .it was great. So, if you haven't read the original four books yet, go here: Sisterhood books, order them, and read them, now. I know, I know, they might not be for you, in that case, go right ahead and read my summary posts of their lives, 10 years later, but if you haven't read them yet and you want to, make sure you do that before you read my posts, as I don't want to spoil the ending for you.

That being said, I haven't actually read the original four books in quite some time, and I know there are probably things I like and don't like about them as well, but I do have fond memories of reading them, so that's what I'm going to go on here. If you haven't guessed yet, "Sisterhood Everlasting" is a sequel to the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series, a tale of what happens to the girls and the people that they know, ten years down the road. I've grown up since then, and so have they, so it was really nice to have some closure. Like "A Tale of Two Cities" and "The Help", the Sisterhood books were made into movies, but the first book became the first movie, and books two through four were crammed into the second movie, so many of the details were missed. As far as I know, there are no plans for a "Sisterhood Everlasting" movie, but I'm okay with that . . . I'd like to leave them just as they are in my memory.

This book isn't divided into chapters like the others were, so I'm not quite sure how I'm going do divide up these posts, but I'll try to keep them from getting too long. To begin with, it seems like these four friends, Lena, Bridget, Carmen, and Tibby have drifted apart. This makes me sad because it rings so true to life. Growing up just gets in the way of those awesome childhood friendships we thought would last forever. I'm still friends with the girls I was friends with back then, but time and distance have come between us . . .life happened. I'm hoping that somehow, throughout this book, these four girls can get back together and make me believe that it is possible in real life too.

One thing I like about this book is the quotes that are used to divide each section (instead of chapter markings), they are insightful and nice . . .a very good addition. They quietly add something to the book without being in the way. Getting into the story, it looks like what I had hoped for will happen: Tibby has planned a get together for the girls in Greece, a place very special to them and a big part of their history (Lena's family is from Greece and the four girls spent quite a bit of time there together). The time can't go fast enough until they can all be together again!

Now, if you don't want me to spoil the story for you, stop reading right here. If you want me to drop the bomb on you though, continue.

The girls get to Greece and look for Tibby, who they were supposed to meet there. They search and search and can't find her . . .this is worse than when they lost the travelling pants. Yes, way worse than that. You know why? Tibby died. I don't know if I can go on without Tibby.