Book Review | The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Summer, beaches and boys; Can you ask for any more than that? Yes actually, I would like to ask for the plot & my sanity back please.

About The Summer I Turned Pretty

Belly Conklin's best moments happen from June to August. Every year, the Fishers and the Conklins spend the summer at Cousins Beach.

Belly has had a massive crush on Conrad Fisher ever since she was ten. Now that she's had her glow-up, she feels that this summer will be special. But little does she know, it'll also be the summer that'll change everything, both for the better and for worse.

The Summer I Turned Pretty Review

The people who inhabited Cousins Beach were... people!

This is going to be a long post about the main characters so strap yourself in for the ride.

Isabel Conklin, nicknamed Belly, the main female lead was insufferable. She kept complaining about everything. And by everything, I really mean everything. This girl doesn't have a single grateful bone in her body. And honestly, of all the nicknames available in the world, why choose Belly? I don't understand why one would torture themselves for a lifetime with such a horrendous nickname. Maybe if I had such an insufferable nickname, I too would act insufferably. She kept bringing down other women, comparing their bodies and used beauty as a measure of self-worth. I found this slightly disturbing since this is a book targeted toward young girls, and teaching them such values could be problematic in the long run. Not only did she have a horrible attitude towards others, but she was also acting extremely childish and immature. She stuck her tongue out (literally) whenever she never got her way. Only toddlers do that! It was exhausting seeing what a spoilt brat she is.

Next, I do not understand how anyone could possibly like Jeremiah Fisher. He's basically Belly reincarnated as a boy. But I'll give this boy some slack and say that he's maybe 5% less annoying than Belly is.

Conrad Fisher infuriated me. He was grumpy all the time and was constantly sending out mixed signals. I don't understand what Belly saw in him.

Steven Conklin is a bully who keeps tearing his sister down for no apparent reason. There's a fine line between teasing between siblings and bullying and he definitely crossed the lines multiple times. Even though he wasn't in the book half the time, I despised his character.

Cam Cameron is probably the most interesting guy. This future marine biologist is your typical nice guy and gives off golden retriever energy. He deserved better.

Some controversial thoughts...

There were some parts that kind of made me re-read the lines and think “Did the author really just write that?” Some lines were misogynistic, anti-feminist and really odd to read, especially coming from the hands of an Asian female writer.

There were also a lot of controversial opinions presented in the book, especially on the topic of consent. Consent is overrated; Let's just kiss people who don't want to be kissed! What better way to cheer someone who just received intense, life-altering news: give them an unwarranted kiss!

Everything else might suck but at least Cousins Beach is a cool place to be.

I quite enjoyed the setting the book took place. The beach and seaside were pretty interesting.

This reader thinks, "Damn, this is some really irritating writing."

Just like Belly, the writing also got on my nerves.

I find the use of “States-something-that-happened-in-a-long-sentence, Reiterates-that-something-again, I mean” really odd and infuriating to read. Seemed like the author kind of assumed that I (the reader) was too stupid for me to imply what they were trying to say. The first few uses of it were cute, but then it just became irritating.

Even though this was written in first person, I found that there was still too much dialogue. Show me what happened, stop telling me!

Also, I found the switching back from past to present quite jarring. There wasn't a need to place a specific age to when the past scene happened and it could've just been a cutaway in between scenes, rather than separated into a whole new chapter. It was tiring for me to adjust between past and present and it got me jumbled so many times. I would have read two pages then find a weird line and realised we had switched time periods again.

No plot, just vibes.

There's basically nothing going on in this book. You'd think Belly would've chosen a guy in the end (she kind of did but it wasn't anything concrete) but nope.

Reading The Summer I Turned Pretty is basically reading Belly's schedule for three months, except she does the same thing every day of every week for the entire summer. Swimming, beaches, I-love-Conrad, dinner, I-love-Jeremiah-now, parties, swimming, Cam-is-cute, beaches, I-love-Conrad, dinner, swimming.

The final verdict.

Will I ever read this again? Never. But I will, unfortunately, be subjecting myself to the rest of the books in this trilogy because I have tragically bought them already. Damn you, TSITP TV series, for being so awfully addictive I bought the whole set of books in advance.

Just stick to the series for this one. Nothing happens in the book that doesn't also happen in the show anyway.

★★☆☆☆ (2/5)

About Jenny Han

Jenny Han is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before series, now a Netflix movie. She is also the author of the Summer I Turned Pretty series, Shug, and Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream. Her books have been published in more than thirty languages. A former librarian, Han earned her MFA in creative writing at the New School. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.