The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

1.5/5 Stars

I have a lot to say about this book so brace yourself for impact.

So the story follows Belly (Isabelle) who for the summer always goes down to Cousin Beach with her mom and their family friend Susannah and her two sons, Jeremiah and Conrad. Belly had had a crush on Conrad for years and now just this summer she is starting to see Jeremiah as an option.

First of all, I nearly melted when Conrad was introduced, and not in a good way. Of course he has to carry out the trope of the silent, protective, brooding one who drinks, smokes cigs, and picks fights at parties because he's "troubled" and is "going through a lot at the moment".

Don't even get me started on our lovely protagonist, Isabelle, or Belly as they call her in the novel. Ever since I read It Only Happens in The Movies by Holly Bourne I noticed how wrong the concept of the "pick me girl" really is. It's sexist and subtly misogynistic. Belly holds this mentality that just because she wasn't super gorgeous in previous summers and now since she's magically gone through puberty (as most people do) she is "different" than any other girls that her OTHER 3 LOVE INTERESTS show interest in.

SHE LITERALLY EXPRESSED HER LOVE TO CONRAD AND HE SAYS

"Well you shouldn't [love me]. I'm not the one sorry." ...

"I don't believe you." I said. "You like me too; I know it." I'd seen the way he looked at me when I was with Cam. I'd seen it with my own two eyes.

"Not in the way you want me to," he said. He sighed in this sad way, like he felt sorry for me, he said, "You're such a kid, Belly."

"I'm not a kid anymore! You just wish I was, so that way you wouldn't have to deal with any of it. That's why you've been mad at me this whole summer," I said my voice getting louder. "You do like me, admit it."

She is trying to convince him of the fact that she isn't a kid anymore while yelling at him to admit feelings for her that are nonexistent. Sure fire way to prove your maturity.

ALSO, the fact that these two guys who she's known for almost her entire life just magically decide to express their undying love for her during the summer that she "turned pretty" when in actuality, let me reiterate this for dramatic effect, SIMPLY WENT THROUGH PUBERTY.

Jenny Han's writing is just nothing to brag about. When depicting the climax in this "love square" she develops, she writes,

"Get out of my face," Conrad growled.

"No." Jeremiah stepped closer, until their faces were inches apart, just like ours had been not fifteen minutes before.

In a dangerous voice, Conrad said, "I'm warning you, Jeremiah."

Wow. Well spoken, Jenny Han. I really had to take a breather there. She writes with such an eighth grade inner dialogue. Like I probably wrote something like this when I was in seventh grade writing stories on Wattpad:

"Things had been weird with me and Conrad and also with me and Jeremiah-an impossible thought crept its way into my head. Was it possible they didn't want me with Cam? Because THEY, like, had feelings for me?"

By adding the unnecessary "like" in the inner dialogue, Jenny Han has truly transformed herself into one of those baby boomers who likes to think they know the way teenagers act. Reminds me a lot of the Netflix show, Ginny & Georgia. That is not at all a compliment.

The only redeemable part of this book was Jeremiah. I'd sell my soul for a boy like him: my first thought when he was first introduced.