3 Willows

3 Willows
written by Ann Brashares



I have mixed feelings on 3 Willows. One one hand, while intended to be extremely obvious, the willow metaphor that extended through the whole book was amazing. The story itself is pretty great on its own, but coming from the Sisterhood author, it's a little...cheap. Some of it just feels like a rip-off, and while the references to the Sisterhood itself are pretty cool, they also do seem like a marketing ploy. Anyways, it was interesting to see the three characters grow and develop. I started out really liking Ama over the other two, but as the book progressed, Ama's character seemed to mold into a stereotypical teen instead of a unique kid, and strangely enough, it was Polly whose story unexpectedly grabbed my attention. Not once while reading did I enjoy Jo's story or attitude. 3 Willows employs quite a few of those really overdone situations (random fling=the guy you'll see in 5 minutes, absence makes the heart grow fonder, etc.) but there is some sparse new-ness you could find if you dug deeper. I recommend this book to younger teens, particularly those who haven't read Sisterhood. Unfortunately, it's Ann Brashares most devout followers of the Sisterhood series that *did* get into this book, and to us, it's Sisterhood v2.0, the lame version.

Rating: 2.5/5