Brashares releases her next YA novel,The Whole Thing Together,in April.
Below, Brashares tells EW what inspired this new book and shares her thoughts on a potential thirdSisterhoodmovie.
To preorderThe Whole Thing Together,headhere.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What inspired this book?
BRASHARES:I often start with a concrete symbol to represent a complicated relationship.
Long ago I started with a pair of pants.
This time I started with a bed.
What was the biggest challenge in writing it?
Its a story about love trying to find space to grow in the middle of a messed up family.
What was the most fun part of writing it?
I also love to write about love.
I got to do all of that in this book.
Whats your writing process like?
Not pretty, Im afraid.
I procrastinate and self-loathe for an awfully long time before I get captivated by a story.
But once I do, I really do.
I write in a fever until I am done.
Blake Livelysaid in Junethat there might be a thirdSisterhood of the Traveling Pantsmovie.
What are your thoughts?
Do you ever miss those characters, or do you feel like you completed their stories?
I would be thrilled for a thirdSisterhoodmovie.
And yes, I do miss writing those characters sometimes.
They still feel alive to me, so their stories continue whether I write about them or not.
Her father liked to remind her it was her and Evies house as much as it was anyones.
She felt bad that he needed to say that, but he did.
It was built by his ex-wife Lila Harrisons grandfather on land bought by Lilas great-grandfather.
Lila was her fathers first wife, before he met her mom, Evie.
Lila was nothing to Sasha, besides descendent of the Harrisons and maker of weird craft projects.
Sasha remembered wondering if hed given that same account to her sisters.
But Sasha also knew there were no favors, never favors, between her dad and Lila.
They belonged to Lila and Lilas daughters.
They also belonged to Ray.
she asked her dad once.
Robert shrugged as though hed never thought of it.
I like those pictures.
They connect us with our history.
He said it without any apparent irony.
Shed been too dumbfounded to respond.
Had he actually convinced himself Lilas relations were also his?
Even though they would have sooner cursed his brown face than shaken his hand?
Robert took what he wanted from the world and left the rest.
That was a gift of some sort.
It had to be.
Evie pulled out an object made of bent chicken wire, barely recognizable as a soap dish.
Do you think its okay to throw this out?
Yes, Sasha said.
She hated her mothers timidity sometimes.
She hated her own timidity.
The wrong side of family alliances mainly included her mother.
What if Lila made it?
She wasnt sure if her mom was trying to be funny.
You could never be sure what odd crafty thing Lila had or hadnt made.
If she did, she should be especially eager for somebody to get rid of it.
Her mother went over to fish it out.
I think we should make a pile of stuff we arent sure of and ask Emma.
We are sure, Sasha said testily.
That wasnt because she resented her sisters, but because she loved them.
She didnt want to be on a different side than they were.
She spent a lot of time thinking about not belonging.
She wondered if they spent any time thinking about belonging.
She strongly suspected not.
It was one of those negative identities you imagined yourself in relation to what you didnt have.
Sasha felt she was the South in this analogy.
Clearly Sasha had not inherited the peculiar gift of her fathers.
These were the days she would later be sorry not to have appreciated.
She tried to induce appreciation, mentally get it firing like an outboard motor.
It was a hard thing to will.
Was it even possible to see beauty in the present as it came at you?
Or did it require a dose of time and loss and maybe a little pain?
Have you finished in your room?
Sasha poured herself a glass of water and drank it.
Ray did a surprisingly okay job.
I just need to finish in the bathroom.
Im going back up.
Ive got nail polish in there from fifth grade.
That and the Lip Smacker collection, including Cheetos and bacon.
Her mother shook her head.
In the bathroom she cleared out most of the medicine cabinet.
She hesitated over the bacon lip gloss, but not for long.
Standing there, she knew it wasnt the bad lip balm flavors that made her feel nostalgic.
Ray was not an ideal roommate.
He was a famous vomiter.
That was what they all said, anyway, and shed slept in the evidence more than once.
I dont share my room with him.
Ive never even met him, Sasha explained in a canned way.
Because though true, it wasnt quite honest.
She did share a room with him.
And a bathroom, for better and mostly worse.
She did more than that.
She shared a life with him, at least in her mind.
Books and toys and sand in the sheets.
A jointly collected menagerie of miniature plastic animals.
Seashells, sisters, a view of the moon.
She didnt know him, maybe, but how often did she think of him?
How often did she live her life in this room, in this house, for both of them?
She was physically jealous that her sisters got to have him for their brother and she didnt.
But later, she began to think it was easier that she never did meet him.
He had the best qualities of an imaginary friend.
He was patient, sympathetic, and understanding, silently sharing her things and spaces.
He was never selfish or loud or bullying.
He never even disagreed with her.
He was just what she wanted, sometimes needed, him to be.
So in that way, he was an ideal roommate.
