The Summer I Turned Pretty | Jenny Han

Hello everyone... I'm back!! I hope you didn't lose faith in me. My little break from posting turned into a no-blog summer—sorry about that! I promise I am not abandoning this teensy project, and as the new school year begins, I will try to keep up with posting somewhat regularly again.

However, just because I didn't blog this summer doesn't mean I didn't read. One of my August reads you may have heard of was The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han.

If you have heard this title, it is more than likely in regard to the incredibly popular TV show adapted from the Summer books. I have not watched the show, and have no plans to at the moment. However, as my YouTube feed flooded with people talking about the latest episode of The Summer I Turned Pretty, I thought I would give the book a try.

I downloaded the audiobook to listen to on an eight-hour drive to and from a good friend's house, so I finished really fast. (Because I listened on audiobook, my content warnings will be less detailed and taken from the site Bark. So a big thank you to Bark for taking the time to list out some content warnings!)

I have a lot of thoughts, so lets dive in!

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Some summers are just destined to be pretty.

Belly measures her life in summers. Everything good, everything magical happens between the months of June and August. Winters are simply a time to count the weeks until the next summer, a place away from the beach house, away from Susannah, and most importantly, away from Jeremiah and Conrad. They are the boys that Belly has known since her very first summer—they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one summer, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.

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Characters

~Belly~

I really dislike Belly. As a daughter, she is distant, as a sister, she is immature, and as a romantic interest, she is childish. I simply don't understand anything about her. She starts off by spending a long time explaining how much she loves her family's summer vacations to Cousins Beach. She says it is her "favorite time of year", "she loves it there", etc., but THEN goes on for many, many chapters to tell sob stories of her previous summers at Cousins Beach. She explains how she was always left out of her brother's and friend's games, treated like a baby, always lonely, and, honestly, every story she tells just sounds miserable. The narration spends a lot of time in the past, recounting previous summers, but even then, I didn't get a really good picture of what Belly enjoyed about those summers. Why does she love it there so much?

As I said before, I dislike her character, and every choice Belly makes as she whines her way through life, somehow turns out to be the wrong one.

~Conrad~

Conrad is an intriguing character. He is Belly's long-time crush and, apparently, very handsome, but other than that I don't see why he is supposed to be so attractive. I guess his brooding, moody exterior is enough for fifteen-year-old Belly, (and supposedly enough for the reader) but one doesn't learn much about Conrad— at least in the first book. He is a character I dislike more than like, for in the glimpse I got of him, his flaws seem to far outweigh his virtues. Conrad mishandles his emotions and is notably unstable in most areas of his life. A seventeen year old should by no means be smoking and getting drunk, and with that in mind he should definitely NOT be involved in a love triangle with our sixteen year old main character.

~Jeremiah~

I like Jeremiah. He is fun, genuine, and deeper than his brother, although one does spend more time with Jeremiah than Conrad in this book. It appeared to me that, when faced with the simple, everyday challenges of right and wrong, Jeremiah often demonstrates a willingness to do the right thing, and if he doesn't end up making the right choice, it is clear he knows his mistake. Although every character in The Summer I Turned Pretty makes questionable choices, or has morals looser than my own, Jeremiah seems like a relatively solid guy.

Plot and setting

The plot was engaging but shallow, as I expected. For the most part, everything amounted to some sort of relationship drama, with very little happening in-between. I expected that from this book, but what I did not expect was the lack of setting. I was looking forward to a summery read. I never thought the plot would be fantastic, but if the summer "aesthetic" was there, I would have been content.

Sadly, I was not content.

Although it is allegedly summer when the book takes place, despite being in the pool a few times or going to a summer party, the summer/coastal aesthetic was extremely unfulfilling. I am quite disappointed in the lack of description of Cousins Beach, the family house, and the surrounding area.

Themes

~Family~

On one hand, I appreciated this book's stance on divorce. Although there are A LOT of separated couples (In fact, I can't think of one solid marriage anywhere in The Summer I Turned Pretty), divorce was never celebrated or uplifted. However, the mindset seemed to be that divorce is pretty much bound to happen— even if it's usually not a good thing. I find this expectation incredibly sad. I know this is how most of the U.S. sees marriage, but God never intended the bond between a man and his wife to be broken. Society, in its sinful and fallen state, has taken something beautiful and torn it apart.

The relationship between Belly and her brother was disheartening to read about. I'm sure they love each other, but they had one or two somewhat tender moments on page— all the rest was filled with bickering, name-calling, and hateful attitudes in general.

~Relationships~

In my opinion, the love triangle is pitiful and very little intriguing. I enjoy a good love triangle, but with one of the characters showing practically no interest, even though he was supposed to be in the triangle, this one was boring and didn't give much substance to the idea of competition. This likely changes in the proceeding books, but very little real love-triangle drama existed in this first installment.

~Coming of age~

As Belly relates previous summers at Cousins Beach, we see her longing for independence grow stronger and stronger as she grows up. She doesn't want to be treated like the baby but always is. In her 16th year, she starts to seriously seek independence.

This doesn't go well by any means.

She handles every situation in the worst possible way, and ends up acting very childish, although her one desire is to be taken seriously. Maybe that should be its own theme in this story, Belly's self-destruction.

And now that I mention her age, even though this is a coming-of-age romance story, Belly is far too young in many ways to be in a serious relationship. Yet, the whole book is about boys and for a significant amount of time, Belly is "dating" someone.

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Well, I believe it is time to share my concluding opinion, although it is quite obvious by this point. Does The Summer I Turned Pretty make it into my Excellent Library?

No.

Does it make it onto my normal shelf, even?

No.

My personal rating is 2.5/5 stars

The Summer I Turned Pretty was a happy little waste of time. It was never meh enough for me to DNF, but looking back, there was not much I liked about this story. I will not be reading the next books in the Summer series anytime soon, though someday I may feel ready to read the conclusion of Belly's dramatic vacations.

Let me know—have you read The Summer I Turned Pretty or do you plan to? Even better, have you watched the show?

Thank you for reading and see you in the next post!

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Content Warnings (Provided by Bark)

~Language

There is some adult language used, as well as frequent name-calling between all of the teens. 

~Sex

There aren’t any explicit sexual scenes, though romance is obviously a central theme of the story. Teens are frequently making out, and sometimes a female character is described as sitting on a boy’s lap. 

There is one scene where Belly sleeps in bed with Jeremiah. However, it is an innocent scene, and nothing else eventful happens. 

There is consistent talk about body image and showing skin (as they are at the beach and often in swimsuits). Belly’s best friend encourages her to show off her body to impress the boys. 

~Violence 

There are a couple of fistfights between the boys that result in a bloody nose and a bruised face. One of the fights is a result of a character being drunk at a party. Other than that, there is little violence in the plotline. 

~Other

The book includes some sensitive dynamics that parents may wish to know. For one, Belly’s parents are divorced, and she expresses some emotional struggles she has with the separation.

Underage teens smoke, drink, and get drunk.

(SPOILER) Additionally, Belly’s mom’s best friend, Susannah, is sick, and it’s revealed that her cancer has come back after being in remission. Belly, Jeremiah, and Conrad process this news in different (sometimes unhealthy) ways throughout the book.