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

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...

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'...

2.75 starsThe 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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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!

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...

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...

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...

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...

THE WHOLE THING TOGETHER BY ANN BRASHARESI 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...