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The Whole Thing Together

Ann Brashares

3.35 · Rating details · 4,968 ratings · 826 reviews

We live in the same place, but never together.

Summer for Sasha and Ray means the sprawling old house on Long Island. Since they were children, they’ve shared almost everything—reading the same books, running down the same sandy footpaths to the beach, eating peaches from the same market, laughing around the same sun-soaked dining table. Even sleeping in the same bed, on th ...more

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Hardcover, 293 pages

Published April 25th 2017 by Delacorte Press

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· 4,968 ratings · 826 reviews

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Nov 25, 2016 Mia rated it did not like it

Rating: 1.5 stars

Alright, buckle up kids. This review is gonna be long, and it's gonna be intense. Needless to say, I had major issues with this book, and I need to get some of these hateful feelings out.

First, I want to start by giving a general warning that most of my review will be addressing the fact that this book displayed almost blatant sexism, body-shaming of all sorts, stereotyping, and some racism. If that's not something that you're up for reading, I understand. It's heavy stuff. B ...more

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Mar 30, 2017 Christy rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2017-three-stars-and-below

2 stars

We live in the same place, but never together.

When I saw that Ann Brashares was coming out with an new YA book, I jumped at the chance to read it. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is one of my favorite YA series. I remember reading them when I was in college and falling in love with the story and the sisterhood. If you go into The Whole Thing Together without these expectations that I had, you may enjoy it more than I did. I expected it to be younger, more fresh and f 2 stars

We live in the same place, but never together.

When I saw that Ann Brashares was coming out with an new YA book, I jumped at the chance to read it. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is one of my favorite YA series. I remember reading them when I was in college and falling in love with the story and the sisterhood. If you go into The Whole Thing Together without these expectations that I had, you may enjoy it more than I did. I expected it to be younger, more fresh and fun than it was. Honestly, with the way the story focused on Ray and Sasha's older sisters for the bulk of the book, I think personally, I would classify this more as fiction than YA.

The story starts off with Ray and Sasha. Ray and Sasha are both teenagers who have shared a room their entire life. But they've never officially met one another. Once upon a time, Ray's mother and Sasha's father were married. They had three daughters together, then they divorced. The one thing they could never settle on was who got their beloved home in Long Island. So they share it. Each person takes every other week. As time went on, both got remarried. Ray's mother had him, and a few weeks later Sasha's parents had her. The three older sisters they share have their own rooms, but Ray and Sasha always rotated theirs.

He had the best qualities of an imaginary friend. He was patient, sympathetic, and understanding, silently sharing her things and spaces. He was never selfish or loud or bullying. He never even disagreed with her. He was just what she wanted, sometimes needed, him to be. So in that way, he was an ideal roommate.

Ray and Sasha's parts of the story were the parts I liked best. Both characters were likable and there were some funny and cute scenes between them. I especially loved their emails.

Dear Ray,

Could you please withdraw orders to call me Sasha?

Sasha

Then the stories of Emma, Maddie, and Quinn came along. I could have done without having the focus of the book being on the entire family. I didn't love that it was written in third person and it wasn't clear to me who was who for the longest time. I also didn't like how one of the sister's stories ended. I thought it was unnecessary and sort of came out of nowhere for me.

What I will say about this book, is once I started it, I was hooked. I stayed up late to finish it because I was engaged in the lives of Sasha and Ray. While there were moments I enjoyed the story, sadly I didn't fall in love with the book. It was just okay for me. ...more

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Mar 15, 2017 abby rated it did not like it

Shelves: fiction, contemporary, netgalley, melodramatic-swill

Sasha and Ray share three sisters, a summer job, and a bedroom at the family summer beach cottage, but they've never met. Before they were born, Sasha's dad was married to Ray's mom, but that marriage ended in disaster. Even though they are kept apart their whole lives, for the simple reason that her father and his mother can't stand to be in the same room, they still feel a connection. For years, they communicate almost subconsciously through shared objects in their bedroom. Then one summer, th Sasha and Ray share three sisters, a summer job, and a bedroom at the family summer beach cottage, but they've never met. Before they were born, Sasha's dad was married to Ray's mom, but that marriage ended in disaster. Even though they are kept apart their whole lives, for the simple reason that her father and his mother can't stand to be in the same room, they still feel a connection. For years, they communicate almost subconsciously through shared objects in their bedroom. Then one summer, their paths finally cross. It winds up being a summer of drastic changes for their family dynamics.

This book is written in third person omniscient, which is a perspective choice I find questionable in the best of times. This book is not the best of times. There are a lot of characters, and the author bounces between them often and rapidly. I don't feel like I got to know any of them, which made it difficult to care about anything that happened. Ray and Sasha's three adult sisters have subplots that are pretty much snooze fests: one of them is hiding a "big secret" that she's dating a nice, normal guy; one is a manic pixie type who is too good for this world (view spoiler); another is trying to find herself. The parents are clueless and cruel, especially the mother.

The way Sasha is described in the book is a bit weird to me-- as having a tiny waist and large breasts (the state of her figure is mentioned more than once), but what makes her a "true beauty" is that boys don't seem to notice. Except Ray, that is, who practically struts around part of the book secure in the knowledge that other boys aren't in competition for Sasha's body. The "romance" between Ray and Sasha was uncomfortable to read. It's stressed several times that the two are not related, but their relationship still feels wrong and vaguely incestuous.

I wouldn't classify this as a YA book. While Ray and Sasha are both seventeen, the book focuses as much on the older sisters and the parents as it did them. I have not read Ann Brashares' previous work, so I don't know what I was expecting, but certainly not this. All in all, this book is filled with unnecessary and predictable drama, and is written in a style to match. It's an easy enough read, but I can't say I much enjoyed it.

I received a copy of this book courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley. ...more

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Apr 19, 2017 Nicole rated it did not like it

Shelves: arc, 2017, romance, ya

I only requested this arc because Ann Brashares is the author of the famous The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I never read the book, only watched the movie over 8 years ago back when I used to think every movie/tv show with teens was awesome. I remember that it was fun. Now I know I'm not reading it.

Excuse me if my review is all over the place. I had so many issues with The Whole Thing Together that I don't even know where to start from. The summary alone was confusing and I don't think it' I only requested this arc because Ann Brashares is the author of the famous The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I never read the book, only watched the movie over 8 years ago back when I used to think every movie/tv show with teens was awesome. I remember that it was fun. Now I know I'm not reading it.

Excuse me if my review is all over the place. I had so many issues with The Whole Thing Together that I don't even know where to start from. The summary alone was confusing and I don't think it's worth wasting my time to try to explain it, the family relationships are very complicated.. I won't even write a detailed review, it's tiring to even think about it.

This book is a mess. In any novel, having multiple POVs is not an easy job for the author. It can be confusing, annoying, useless, and so much more. Especially, in contemporary. This book was not an exception. Everything that can go wrong while using multiple POVs was found here. I think I need to explain. You see, at first, I thought Ray and Sasha are the main characters. I was wrong, we read from their sisters pov too. 5 people! And I didn't care about any. I was confused who was telling the story each time especially with the 1st person usage and in the same chapter, we can find multiple POVs...

The characters were so richly annoying. Let's start with the sisters. The author tried to make them 3-dimentional but terribly failed. Quinn was oh my so perfect, so~~too~~ good and loving. I hated Mattie, she was the worse of the 3. Emma was boring. I didn't care about them. The book was like fillers from page 1 until the end. I forced myself to finish it. It earned many eye rolls.

We all know Ray and Sasha will end up together but God, the cringe. So these two fellows practically fell in love with each other because they shared a room and stuff (never at the same time) and before they ever met. Well, the author never said it, but it was pretty obvious. I didn't root for them. Maybe it's because the story didn't only focus on them but also about the sisters' lives. Maybe because of the cringe-worthy letters. But in any case, I was indifferent. I think introducing the sisters was kinda necessary since their story wasn't worth a book, anyway...

The Asian rich father (of course, he works with techs. That's what all Asians do) and the irritating mother were so childish. (view spoiler). Sasha didn't appreciate her mother and she even knew it but it didn't help, I still hated her for it, her mother was nice.

I even had a headache while reading this book. I never have headaches. ~~okay rarely but saying it rarely doesn't ring well.~~ I even made it to the end only to hate it even more. Even though I liked how it ended for Mattie, the rest was stupid.

If you still want to read this book, go for it. Sometimes "it's me not you" kind of book but this one is definitely the book's problem.

***ARC provided via NetGalley*** ...more

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Mar 23, 2017 Olivia (Stories For Coffee) rated it did not like it

Shelves: review-requested

The Whole Thing Together is a summer-y contemporary novel about a family split apart, thanks to years of tension and pent up anger. It follows all POVs of the children of the large family, as their lives change throughout the course of their novel. It’s the story about them reconnecting, thanks to these two teens who are not related but are apart of this broken family- in a way (Confusing, I know. The synopsis explains it better).

I was never a fan of third person narration, especially when it fo ...more

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Jul 23, 2017 Grace (BURTSBOOKS) rated it it was ok

Shelves: reviewed

2.75 stars

The Whole Thing Together follows 7 different characters and about 80 storylines, which makes it almost impossible to give an accurate synopsis of it but imma try anyway. This book follows a dysfunctional family, one that has been split apart long before we start the book. We follow each of the 5 children of the family. It's hard to determine but the seemingly main characters of this novel are the two youngest siblings (THAT ARENT ACTUALLY RELATED) and how they share three sisters and a 2.75 stars

The Whole Thing Together follows 7 different characters and about 80 storylines, which makes it almost impossible to give an accurate synopsis of it but imma try anyway. This book follows a dysfunctional family, one that has been split apart long before we start the book. We follow each of the 5 children of the family. It's hard to determine but the seemingly main characters of this novel are the two youngest siblings (THAT ARENT ACTUALLY RELATED) and how they share three sisters and a bedroom in their vacation home, yet they’ve never actually met.

I went into this book expecting something like the parent trap. I wanted long-lost siblings finally meeting and all the wholesome goodness that comes along with it and instead I got super weird incest vibes. (I know they aren’t actually related but, I mean, they share siblings… it’s weird.)

The worst thing about this book is that it’s really well written. So the whole time I was reading, there I was, marvelling at all the pretty words while simultaneously cringing at all the slut shaming, racism and heteronormativity. It was all very aggravating. Not to mention boring. I liked the focus on family, I liked the themes that were explored, but because there were so many characters and storylines, nothing was fully developed and the story didn't seem to follow an actual plot. Also, a romance between pseudo-siblings has no place in a book about family. I'm sorry I just don't want it.

I really, really wouldn’t recommend this book. It was cringey and boring and just all over the place. Turns out pretty writing can’t fix everything.

For example, even though the writing was nice, there were still many many many passages that had me rolling my eyes into the back of my skull. Surprise, surprise, you can still say offensive things using clever wording.

Here are some examples:

“He didn’t really want to see her like that – another girl clustered with bikini-clad friends, flashing braces and peace signs on Paradise Island or whatever. He wanted to keep alive the idea that she was different.”

“He saw boys heads swivel and gawk at the friend as the pair walked by, but his shuffly girl was the actual beauty, her lovely body hidden under modest clothes.”

“She was the kind of pretty only someone as deep as him understood.”

“As though her loveliness was something he invented.”

And it just goes on and on…. If those passages don’t turn you off from this book completely, I don’t know what will. ...more

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Apr 10, 2017 ✰ Bianca ✰ BJ's Book Blog ✰ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: i-loved-it, pretty-good, 4-5-stars, first-reads

Ray and Sasha share the same 3 older sisters. They stay in the same room whenever they’re in the family house in the Hamptons. But … they never ever met!
Ray’s mom was married to Sasha’s dad ages ago – they had three daughters and got divorced – and not in a let’s-stay-friends way. That’s why the two new kids never met.
But this summer things are chaning. Both are 17 now and their interests start to change. Now they don’t care about the old shared Harry Potter books or their old collection of shel ...more

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Jun 09, 2017 Ryan Buckby rated it it was ok

I didn't enjoy this book at all, the writing and characters weren't anything like i want in a contemporary book. The characters felt so 2 dimensional and so bland that it was hard to pin point a stand out character in this book.

This book reminded me of 'We Were Liars' in some aspects of the story and i really had trouble trying shy away from that story but it kept popping up in my head while i was reading this book. I didn't enjoy the third person perspective while reading from Sasha and Ray, i ...more

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Apr 02, 2017 Jessica rated it did not like it

When I saw Ann Brashares was coming out with a new YA book, I was so excited. I grew up on the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books and I was ready for another book that explored family and friendship. In the end, though, I was not a fan of the writing style or characters in this book.

Sasha and Ray have shared everything pretty much their whole lives. They've shared books, sweatshirts, toys, and even a room. Too bad they've never met. Part of a torn family, Sasha's dad and Ray's mom were onc When I saw Ann Brashares was coming out with a new YA book, I was so excited. I grew up on the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books and I was ready for another book that explored family and friendship. In the end, though, I was not a fan of the writing style or characters in this book.

Sasha and Ray have shared everything pretty much their whole lives. They've shared books, sweatshirts, toys, and even a room. Too bad they've never met. Part of a torn family, Sasha's dad and Ray's mom were once married but split apart, leaving three daughters between them, three sisters that Sasha and Ray share. They've managed to stay apart, but this summer is going to be different than the rest. This summer, lives will change and even the smallest decisions will have the biggest impacts.

Oh man. I barely give books a one star but I could not stand this book. First thing that just did not mesh with me was how this book was written. There are so many characters and such a strange family tree and this story is told in third person omniscient. The story switched between characters so often and I had such a hard time connecting with someone since we barely had time with them before we were yanked away to someone else. Out of all of them, I didn't even have a favorite character. I didn't care about anyone and didn't really buy into their loving relationships with one another.

Since I didn't enjoy any of the characters, this book was so hard to get into. There was so much time spent on inner monologues and I felt like not a lot of actual character interaction and dialogue happened. And some parts I had to reread because I wasn't sure if what happened had actually happened [like what happened at the end between Sasha and Ray? Did what I think happened happen? Because that's just weird and makes no sense at all]. Once I hit about the halfway mark I found myself skimming through a lot of parts because I just didn't care. I was so disappointed that I just couldn't connect with the writing, the characters, or the story in general.

There were so many moments that held potential with these characters and the issues they were facing. Sadly, because there were so many characters, these issues could not be fleshed out and it felt very surface level. And that ending just didn't mesh with me at all. In the end, this book just wasn't for me. ...more

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Oct 14, 2017 Shannon (kitchandpages) rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this read. I felt Brashares was back in her element, telling a layered and multi-perspective family saga. It took a minute to keep all the characters straight but I ended up really enjoying them all and loving the story, though it was heartbreaking at times. Worth a read if you like contemporary or are a fan of Brashares Sisterhood series!

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Apr 21, 2017 Miranda rated it did not like it

It pains me that I didn't like this book because I had such high expectations for this book! I really wanted to like this book, and I did like a few parts of it, but the parts I didn't like definitely outweighed the positive aspects of this book.

The first thing I didn't like about this book was how confusing it was. There were a lot of characters so it was hard to connect with any of them. A lot of the characters seemed so similar that I really couldn't keep track of what was happening to which ...more

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Apr 29, 2017 Zoe rated it liked it

Poignant, tragic and excessively complex!

In this latest novel by Brashares she delves into the emotional and psychological effects of blended families on all those involved and highlights the challenges faced by those specifically caught in the middle.

The characters are vulnerable, troubled and coming of age. The prose is simple and clear. And the plot, which is ultimately about guilt, love, life, loss, yearning, heartbreak, deception, friendship and family just seems to have a little too many s ...more

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May 01, 2017 Berit☀️✨ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2017, audiobooks, young-adult

Wow I am very surprised this book has such a low rating, I'm guessing people went in with expectations that were not met...
This is not a fun, fluffy, beach read like this authors well known series... i'm actually not even sure if I would classify it as young adult, it is probably more family fiction... The book is about two families that are sharing the same beach house... Lila and Richard were married and had three daughters and a very ugly divorce... as a result of this they share a beach hous ...more

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Dec 08, 2016 ⊱ Poppy ⊰ marked it as arcs-to-review

I am very excited to read this book. I loved Ann Brashares The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and i would love to read her new work. Let's hope for the best.

...more

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Mar 23, 2017 Liana rated it did not like it

Shelves: netgalley, did-not-like

Review also here: https://forloversofbooks.wordpress.co...

Okay folks, get ready, because I am about to discuss a book I absolutely H-A-T-E-D. I was a bit reluctant to use this word (hate) at first, but then I thought – who fucking cares? I didn’t like this book and I am going to talk about it.

So, let us begin with a bit of the family’s history. Lila and Robert used to be married. Together they had three daughters, Emma, Quinn and Mattie. After their divorce they both re-married and they each had ...more

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Apr 24, 2017 ✰ Bianca ✰ BJ's Book Blog ✰ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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Aug 02, 2017 Cal (Cal's Reading Corner) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: gosford-library

Read more bookish goodness on my book blog: Cal's Constant Raving Reviews

Overall, this book is a 3/5 stars. It was nothing super great, but it wasn't poorly written. I enjoyed it. If you enjoy short contemporaries with a bit of light romance; you'll enjoy this.

This was very easy to read. It only took me one sitting, which I don't usually do for YA contemporaries.

I found it a bit troubling at the start; trying to distinguish the families. It was emphasised over and over again that Sarah and Ray ...more

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May 31, 2017 Tina rated it it was ok

Evidently Ann Brashares is a very popular author. This is my first book and sorry to say I couldn’t get invested with the characters or their internal struggles. Since she receives such high marks perhaps I will try another of her books unless she only writes young adult fiction. Maybe that was my problem with this book, I didn’t know it was young adult fiction or I wouldn’t have requested it.

There were far too many characters to keep up. I should have had a clue about that when a family tree wa ...more

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Jul 30, 2016 Celeste_pewter rated it really liked it

It's hard to explain this book - it's fractured, and there's no real main character. There's also no concrete beginning or end.

However, Brashares shares a series of lovely snapshots into the lives of her characters, which somehow works when tied together into a greater whole. It's disjointed, but exactly the way real life often is.

Also, there's a plotline that will likely weird readers out. I kind of made a face at first, but eh - weirder things have happened. If there's more love in the world ...more

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Feb 21, 2017 Karen rated it it was ok

THE WHOLE THING TOGETHER BY ANN BRASHARES

I really wanted to like this book very much and was excited to get an advanced readers copy.
I loved The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. I have to agree with the other reviewers about this one having a lot of confusing writing and the way the characters changing points of view were also confusing. Very disjointed writing and choppy.

I want to say thank you to Net Galley, Ann Brashares and the Publisher for providing me with my digital copy for a fair an ...more

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May 24, 2017 Shannon rated it liked it

I had high hopes for this book because I really did enjoy the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series and The Last Summer by Brashares, but this book was a bit disappointing. I found the whole family situation to be a bit confusing and kept having to look at the chart in the front of the book to figure out which child belonged to who. The book is told from several perspectives and I just really didn't enjoy Ray as a character. Maybe because it is a bit more difficult for me to identify with wri ...more

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Mar 29, 2017 Mariana rated it liked it

3.5/5
I read many things about this book but I actually liked it. Yes, the parents are immature and I hated them most of the book. Yes, there were too many chatacters an POVs, but you kinda get used to it after a while. But, it's something different, easy to read and that touches a lot of issues of a family's life (maybe too many). It wasn't bad, but it could have been better. For being my very first book by Brashares I'll say it was pretty good. ...more

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May 25, 2017 kai jiang rated it did not like it

Shelves: dnf-under-50

I've heard many, many good thing about Ann Brashares, her being the author of Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and all. But, uh, this book weirded me out??? The writing was really good but the way Ray talked about Sasha rubbed me the wrong way.... Brashares' writing is really good though, now that I've gotten a taste of it, I'll definitely be reading Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. ...more

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Sep 13, 2016 Luke Reynolds rated it did not like it

Shelves: teen-fiction, my-2016-least-favorites, realistic-fiction, lgbtq, meh, arc, could-have-been-better, predictable, disappointment, romance

ARC Review (9/13/16, received from Sarah Prineas)

When I was in seventh grade, I absolutely adored Ann Brashares's The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. I believe I read them all back-to-back, and I absolutely loved the journey of them. It could have easily been a stand-alone, but there was something satisfying about seeing four girls spend their summers sharing a pair of jeans they found at a thrift store that fit them all just right and growing up that worked for me. There was a magic i ...more

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Aug 29, 2016 Brittany rated it it was ok

Shelves: adult, teen

Did Ann Brashares peak with the Traveling Pants series? I wanted to like this book so badly and I really did try, but she made it so hard to find any good in it. My main issues with this book are I have no idea who it was written for, there are no main characters and there were so many different voices and changes in point-of-view it was hard to keep track of everyone and made the whole thing so disjointed and just sloppy. I found the entire premise of this to be unbelievable. Two teens share a ...more

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Apr 10, 2017 Jessica rated it liked it

Shelves: first-reads

Won in the First Reads giveaway.

A bit predictable but very readable. I don't feel the multiple POVs worked as well as they did in the Sisterhood books, I think that was mostly from lack of formatting (because it was an ARC) though.

I think the rating is currently low because (view spoiler).

Also, I don't think it quite got the mixed race family thing ...more

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Apr 16, 2017 Yaritza rated it liked it

Life comes full of surprises. This was the first book I have read from Ann. I was lost half way through the book going from character to character. It started getting interesting half way through the book. This book brought two families that share kids in common but live there separate life's. Two of the kids Sasha and Ray are not related but never meet even though they share Ray's sisters. This book is filled with love, secrets, courage and strength. The two families can't be together until an ...more

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Jan 14, 2018 Amy Lou rated it liked it

3.5 stars
This is a book about family drama, love and loss, and romance, both forgotten and current. I had expected I️t to be much more about a forbidden romance but I️t actually wasn’t. I️t gave me We Were Liars vibes because of the intense drama and heartbreak. Hm. This was definitely better than I thought I️t would be! The audiobook was also fabulously done, although I️t took me a while to get into it, as there are so many characters!

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Jun 09, 2017 Katie rated it did not like it

Shelves: how-library, books-read-in-2017-new, format-ebook, books-read-in-2017

Sigh. Big plot spoilers. (view spoiler) ...more

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Jul 23, 2018 Eleanor (bookishcourtier) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: two-star, read-in-2018, contemporary

This was a teeny bit fun, but also quite problematic. Which is sad, because I enjoyed some parts of this book, and the premise was pretty interesting. But I just don't think that I could give this book a higher rating, because there were some things in here which weren't really things I would expect to find in a novel published in 2017. I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book, but it looked really summery, and I wanted to read a light contemporary. After starting it, I checked out t This was a teeny bit fun, but also quite problematic. Which is sad, because I enjoyed some parts of this book, and the premise was pretty interesting. But I just don't think that I could give this book a higher rating, because there were some things in here which weren't really things I would expect to find in a novel published in 2017. I wasn't really sure what to expect from this book, but it looked really summery, and I wanted to read a light contemporary. After starting it, I checked out the not so great reviews for this book, and to be honest, I have to agree with a lot of them.

T H O U G H T S

- OK, well let's start with some of the things I actually liked. I really enjoyed the premise. There is this super super complicated family, and two of its members have never met, despite "sharing" a room for most of their lives. It was pretty interesting (and no they aren't actually related) and I did really like the idea of exploring this complicated family throughout the novel. Some parts of this were interesting, and were actually done well. But others? It was...not.

- The characters were pretty flat and one dimensional, which is not really great when the entire plot line is about this whole family. This book could have been really good and emotional and deep had the characters been properly developed. I can see it in my mind - how awesome this could have been. Unfortunately, it wasn't, and although I didn't mind the many POVs we got (because I do actually like that), the characters were not great, which meant that the sad ending felt rushed and over dramatic. And also - (view spoiler)

- Down to the problematic elements. I do not even begin to assume that I am the person to tell you what you should think about this book, but this is what I, personally, felt whilst reading this. I felt that there were a lot of cases of unaddressed racism, which made my reading experience unpleasant. There was also a ton of slut shaming, which is sad. And none of it was really addressed as problematic - and some of the characters were pretty problematic in themselves. A lot of them would praise the "modest" girls, who didn't wear "miniskirts" and hid their bodies, or criticised some of the characters who wore revealing clothes, which was just really sad? Girls can wear what they want! Anyone can wear what they want.

This could have been better? I find it sad that some of the problems in here were not addressed, and I am quite disappointed in the way that this was not really that summery? The premise was interesting, but not well executed, which is always a let down. I'm not sure I recommend this one, because there isn't really much that is redeemable about it. I mean, if you want to... But I just felt that the author was writing about stuff she didn't really understand, and that it was pretty flat and unemotional.
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About Ann Brashares

Ann Brashares

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Ann Brashares grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with three brothers and attended a Quaker school in the D.C. area called Sidwell Friends. She studied Philosophy at Barnard College, part of Columbia University in New York City. Expecting to continue studying philosophy in graduate school, Ann took a year off after college to work as an editor, hoping to save money for school. Loving her job, she ne ...more

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