The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Book

This is beginning to feel a little too familiar, but here's yet another disapointment from my YA Lit class. First, I should state that I have never liked the whole "girl power" thing. I guess I always felt intelligent/empowered enough as a teenager to not have to rely on books like this to show me how fantastic it is to be female. Also, generally speaking, I find large groups of girls terrifying, especially at the high school age. So lots of pre-existing strikes against this book.

As for the story itself: blah.

Complaint the first: I dislike the fomulatic "four girls with four neat, distinctive personalities" thing. I mean come on - all my friends in high school were pretty much the exact same as me, but with different colors of hair and varying degrees of niceness.

Complaint the second: I was unconvinced by every single one of the characters. Lena I liked the best, but I still didn't buy the whole "I don't want people to like me 'cause I'm pretty" thing. Realistically, most pretty teenagers seem fairly psyched by their good fortune and run with it. Maybe if she was in her twenties (still a maybe), but at fifteen?

Similarly, the one who played soccer and her agressive hitting on the coach senario. Maybe it was realistic, but if it is, I didn't grow up with girls like that. It all seemed a little contrived to me. Even at fifteen we all had a pretty good handle on the word "skank", and the lack of it being thrown around by anyone made this seem less real-world. Girls aren't nice - if one person has the nerve to flirt with the camp idol (especially if she is sucessful), she isn't cheered on and adored for it. She is hated, whispered about, and called lots of fun names for it. Or, at least where I came from.

Complaint the third: the kid with cancer. Not to be cold (or, perhaps "colder" would be more accurate), but dying does not make you self-aware, wise, and interesting all by itself so far as I know. Yet somehow books/movies just can't resist the wise-beyond-her-years dying kid. It would make a lot more sense and be a lot more authentic if she were just mad, not a slightly rebellious Yoda.

Complaint the fourth: The stupid pants. I hated the completely idiotic premise of the book. Seriously. Magic pants that fit everyone? That's the best that could be thought up? Not good. Not good at all.