Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty
Firstly I want to assure my readers that my reviews will always be spoiler free unless specified. I know that many of you like to read - or let’s be honest, skim - reviews to get an idea of if you want to read said book.
Without further ado, here’s my first review!
(and no I didn’t intend for that to rhyme, it just happens sometimes - okay that was intentional.)
The Summer I Turned Pretty (TSITP) series begins with a book of the same title. This follows the story of a young sixteen-year-old Belly during her time spent at Cousins a fictional beachside town. Every summer Belly, her mum, and her brother head to the beach to spend the summer with Belly’s mum’s (Laurie) best friend Susannah and her two boys Jeremiah and Conrad. We learn very quickly, Belly has been in love with Conrad since she was a kid.
We follow Belly as she deals with usual teen dramas; being annoyed by her brother, teased by the boys, her ups and downs with her best friend Taylor, cute guys, and figuring out how to get over the ever-elusive Conrad. The story mixes together recollections of the past to set up character dynamics and the current storyline.
I won’t detail the storylines of the next two as that would majorly spoil the first book for those who haven’t read it, but I will briefly note that through the next two books, we get further insight into Belly’s life, Jeremiah’s life and Conrad’s life. The bond Belly has with both these two boys from her childhood is strong and this is tested on multiple occasions.
Now that’s all set up, let’s move on to my take on the series.
These books are adorable, heartfelt, annoying, and at times predictable but all round enjoyable. This is a teen's first love story that follows most of the usual tropes but does enough with its characters and its setting to stand out. The story would be nothing without these two elements, not to say it wasn’t a good story, Jenny Han does really well at creating real characters who breathe both fictional/desirable traits and real conflicts and flaws. Belly for example, behaves exactly like a young girl who is still growing into herself, her views, and finding her true voice. She does and says things that are wrong, driven by her emotions and constantly feeling like the baby of the group. She reacts to things based on what she believes they all think of her, which is a dumb kid who doesn’t know what she’s doing. We get to see Belly grow out of this, which is a classic coming-of-age arc that is given a lot of heart.
The second book ‘It’s Not Summer Without You’ in particular, deals with grief and how people deal with it completely differently. This was probably my least favourite out of the three, but I feel this is largely because of the palpable grief that can be felt throughout. I still enjoyed it, but it was missing some magic that the first one had - for me at least.
The last book ‘We’ll Always Have Summer’ was nothing like I thought it was going to be - serves me right for not reading the blurb I guess! We meet Belly a few years older, not altogether wiser yet as she’s still learning and growing. The tension created in this book was great with many nuanced moments that made me wonder “what’s Belly going to do?” The best was brought out of some characters and the worst in others.
I guess what I’m about to say next might be considered a spoiler so skip to the last paragraph if you want a complete and total surprise for when you read these books. This is more for those who’ve read the books. Last chance to skip! Jeremiah really bugged me in the end. I think he’d make a terrific friend and is very sweet, but for me it kind of felt like he only wanted Belly because it was the one thing he felt he had over Conrad. Like, you’re the favourite son who gets everything, but I got Belly. His idea to make things up to Belly was outrageously wrong and his reluctance to help Belly when she needed it just kept highlighting how immature he still was. What I did really like though was the fact that Jeremiah and Conrad didn’t just magically make up after everything that went down. It’s sad because they were so close, but it felt real to know they actually had this rough patch that only time will eventually help. I feel as though if this happened between real brothers it wouldn’t just be something that was easily mended.
Okay, so overall I enjoyed this series. It was a typical but still entertaining Y/A story that I’d definitely pick up and read again in the future. I would say it was a really cute read - which it was - but it was also sad and honest at times which I liked a lot. I would recommend this series to anyone who likes to read Y/A or if you’re looking for a summer binge read.
Rating: ****(4/5)
TW: terminal illness, grief, loss and betrayal.
