Thoughts before reading:
Everything changes all right, it just takes 15 years...
I haven't read this, or any Friends Forever, before, but I like the basic concept behind it, based on what I know going in. However, I think this whole idea of downsizing the BSC and changing things would have been 1000x better if the girls graduated 8th grade in this book, then we followed them through their first year of high school in this series. After doing 8th grade for over a decade, it would be so nice to see the biggest change of all actually happen: the passage of time. Then the transition to high school would account for all the other changes in their lives, and with the club, instead of just randomly happening. This book could cover the summer before 9th grade, and how starting high school is affecting everyone.
The basics:
It's summer vacation still, and Kristy's worried about the BSC because everyone's going to be gone in July, except for Mal, Jessi, Logan, and Shannon. (Never mind that something like this happened in every Super Special.) Mary Anne, Abby and Kristy are going to be CITs at Camp Mohawk, Claudia's going on a surprise family vacation, and Stacey's spending 5 weeks in NYC.
While Kristy's packing for camp, things go from bad to worse. First, Logan calls her to drop out of the BSC... he says he'll be too busy with sports next year. Naturally, she's furious. Then Mary Anne decides not to go to camp, because she has too much going on at home, and she's still having nightmares. Kristy isn't very sympathetic, and gets mad at her for backing out. To top all this off, she finds out that Jessi's going to a new ballet school in Stamford, 6 days a week.
Mary Anne's living in a rental house provided by the insurance company for the time being. She's still worried that her dad will take the job in Philadelphia, as nothing's been decided yet. Logan's also been driving her crazy since the fire, being really overprotective. He's constantly hovering and making her feel suffocated, not to mention frustrated. She doesn't understand why he can't see that she's a strong person, and starts to question whether or not she still wants to be with him.
She does get a little break from worrying about all this when her grandma from Iowa comes to visit, for the first time since her daughter died, bringing along boxes of things that belonged to Alma. There's photos, letters, toys, even grade school art. Seeing how much of her mother is truly left, Mary Anne feels much better. (Of course, all the things she had from Alma herself were lost in the fire.)
Things get even better when Richard surprises her with some amazing news: he's turned down the job in Philly, deciding it's not right for him. He then suggests they renovate the barn to live in, an idea that Mary Anne and Sharon both love. It will take about a year to complete though, and their current rental is too small for them to stay in for so long. Richard and Sharon search for a new temporary home, leading to more great news... the Goldmans, Claudia's neighbors, are renting their house out. (They've just retired, and are spending a year in Florida.) Mary Anne is thrilled to be returning to Bradford Court, where she grew up, and she'll be right next door to Claudia!
Claudia's family is going to Monhegan, a small island off the coast of Maine. They want to return to the simple life for awhile, or at least the adults do. Claudia's less than thrilled, and she's quickly bored on the island, with no technology and no phones. As time goes on though, she comes to love it, and ends up not wanting to leave. She even thinks she might want to move there someday.
Stacey's summer with her dad in NYC gets off to a rough start when he sees Ethan standing outside The Pony, an adult club. Based solely on this, he decides Ethan's a bad influence on Stacey. (Plus he has an earring! GASP!) She's now allowed to see him only 14 hours a week. He also sits Stacey down and announces that he's having Samantha move in, which she's less than thrilled about.
Ethan convinces Stacey to give Samantha and the move a chance. Her dad's so impressed, he lifts the new rules... just in time for her vacation to be over anyway.
At camp, Kristy and Abby are in the same cabin, assigned to 8 year old's. Despite her excitement about the summer, Kristy's depressed over what's happening to her "beautiful BSC". Then Abby pulls her aside at camp to talk, and tells her she needs to quit the BSC. She wants more free time, and time for other things. Kristy's beyond furious, and decides that Abby's a lazy traitor, a wimp, a bad sport, etc, etc.
From then on, Kristy gives Abby the silent treatment, ignores her outright, gets her in trouble, and plots ways to torture her. It's only after one of their campers tries to reunite them that Kristy apologizes and finally comes to understand.
Once all the girls are back in Stoneybrook, the OG BSC members get together. They all admit that they'd like to have more free time, and that when school starts things are going to be really busy as it is. Kristy's heartbroken, especially after calling Shannon, who tells her she was working up the courage to call and drop out too. Kristy's panicked about how the four of them could possibly ever do the work 9 of them struggled with... but she has to admit that even she would like more free time. The four girls end up agreeing to run the club on a scaled back basis: no new clients, less meetings, and if they can't do a job, they'll just turn it down.
Mary Anne decides to break up with Logan, but is still unsure how to do it.
Kristy decides to start a new journal for this new chapter in her life, and wonders about who she'll be when there's no more BSC and she's just a regular babysitter.
Timeline:
Opens on June 25th, and covers July and a little of August.
Misc. thoughts:
*This alternates POVs, just like all the other Super Specials, but only the OG 4. The whole book is comprised of letters and journal entries, complete with Claudia's spelling (but thankfully not her handwriting).
*Kristy says Mal and Jessi can't run the club by themselves, but they actually have before, in SM #1.
*Kristy's started keeping a journal, because she's been inspired by Mary Anne.
*Other summer plans include Jessi going to a special summer ballet program, Mallory's plan to write a book, Logan has joined a baseball league called the Panthers, and has football practice, and Dawn is in California until August. (Why, when that's her only Stoneybrook time? Plus she came to CT in #131, so why would she leave and then come back again later in the summer?)
*Didn't Kristy go to Monhegan in her Portrait book, or was that a different random island?
*Claudia still can't spell Mary Anne's name, after knowing her for her whole life? Sigh. Her chapters in here were really annoying, because the spelling was so distracting. They should have just said she used spell check and then had everything be written normally.
*Stacey's learning how to needlepoint? Didn't she already learn this in another book, way back? I thought she took a project to Sea City with her on one of the trips.
*The World Trade Center is mentioned.
*I'm baffled by the handling of Jessi's character. By the #80's, she was barely getting any books or storylines. Then her last series book was #115, quite awhile ago, and that was the Dance NY book. Since she never got another book, or wrapped up, and is now leaving the BSC to attend a dance school, why didn't she just leave back then? It would explain more and make so much more sense.
*This book refers to the previous trip to summer camp from way back in SS #2 as having been last summer, which makes the time loop obvious and awkward.
*Claudia's parents let her eat at McDonalds in here, which surprised me.
*Apparently the last time Stacey took Ethan to Bloomingdale's, he embarrassed her by trying on hats in the women's department because he was bored, LOL.
*Ethan tells Stacey he only goes shopping when he needs something. Stacey figures this must be one of the great differences between men and women, which made me laugh.
*Also, Stacey and Ethan's entire trip to Bloomingdale's in here was hilarious, especially him trying to find the "guy couches" to read on, and getting all flustered in the bra department.
*This book was a LOT different than I expected. I thought there would be a bunch of big changes, life events, figuring out the BSC, farewells to characters... not everyone taking separate vacations and then writing about them.
*I already like Friends Forever Mary Anne better. Her relationship with Logan spanning the entire BSC series was ridiculous, and I'm thrilled that she finally wants to dump him.
*Before their fight, Abby and Kristy both love camp, and Kristy loves getting to know Abby better.
*What's with Claudia's sudden lobster obsession? She's trying to eat it everyday on her vacation, which got really tedious to read about in her letters.
*It says in here that Mary Anne's grandma traveled with more luggage than even Stacey, but it's actually Claudia who always has the huge suitcases.
*I can't really blame Abby for wanting to be a kid and not be working so much... the most cult-like aspect of the BSC to me is how hard it is to get out of it. When anyone leaves, regardless of their reason, Kristy totally flips out.
*After all these years of not being allowed to read Nancy Drews, Claudia catches her mom reading a Harlequin Romance! Definitely my favorite moment of this book, haha!
*Claudia and Janine take an art class together, which I thought was sweet.
*Kristy is so mean to Abby in here that it's ridiculous. I'm surprised Abby even wants to be her friend anymore.
*There's an error in here where Claudia refers to "Claud" in a letter to Stacey, like it's someone else writing a letter to Claudia.
*No ghostie?
*I wonder why they didn't have all the girls write to each other for this? It was always Claudia and Stacey or Kristy and Mary Anne.
Books mentioned:
*Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
*A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle
*Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
My rating:
3 stars. I loved the idea of this: a smaller, simpler club, a new focus on characters, more friendship driven, a return to the original four characters, actual changes/growth, and Mary Anne finally dumping Logan. I didn't like the execution so far though. Other than the first 10% and last 10%, this was so boring. There was no plot at all. I also really wish everyone, all 9 characters, would have had chapters in here, to wrap them up and say goodbye. Since there was really hardly anything going on in here, it would have fit in fine. Mal and Jessi, especially, really deserved better.
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