When I saw Ann Brashares, the author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, I was so excited!
The Whole Thing Together
Ann Brashares
Delacorte Press
304 pages April 25th 2017
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 the very same worn cotton sheets. But they’ve never met.
Sasha’s dad was once married to Ray’s mom, and together they had three daughters: Emma, the perfectionist; Mattie, the beauty; and Quinn, the favorite. But the marriage crumbled and the bitterness lingered. Now there are two new families—and neither one will give up the beach house that holds the memories, happy and sad, of summers past.
The choices we make come back to haunt us; the effect on our destinies ripples out of our control…or does it? This summer, the lives of Sasha, Ray, and their siblings intersect in ways none of them ever dreamed, in a novel about family relationships, keeping secrets, and most of all, love.
I was so excited to read this because I loved The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books and movies. Unfortunately for me The Whole Thing Together didn’t live up to it for me. There were so many POVs in this book and it got very confusing at times. The voices got jumbled and at times it didn’t feel like there was any distinciton between the characters. I had expected it to be just Sasha and Ray as the characters who we learned the story from but we also got the older sisters POVs as well. Something else that bothered me was the micro aggressions woven in, especially towards Robert. The characters just seem so problematic. While I know that everything and everyone can be and are problematic, these characters just seem to be over the top. The characters didn’t develop as much as I would have liked and they were also pretty predictable. I didn’t find Sasha and Ray to be interesting at all, they seemed just so flat and boring. Another thing was that despite being told over and over and over that Sasha and Ray aren’t related their relationship gave me the creeps and I did not like it. They felt too much like family to be in a relationship. I know that the families hated each other but I found it a little unrealistic that Sasha and Ray had never met. I found it easy to read but it just wasn’t something I enjoyed. The pacing was pretty great and the idea was awesome but the execution wasn’t.
Have you read The Whole Thing Together?
What did you think?
Let me know below!
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