Book Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty

Title: The Summer I Turned Pretty
Author: Jenny Han
Genre: Romance, Young Adult, Fiction

What It’s About: Belly rides with her mom and her brother, Steven, to the Fisher Beach house, and Steven and her mom tease her about Jeremiah and Conrad, the two Fisher boys. In particular, they tease her about Jeremiah because she’s good friends with him and they look like they could be a good couple, and about Conrad, it’s because she’s had a crush on him since she was very young.

When they arrive, the boys say hi to Belly’s mom, and to Steven before they notice Belly for the first time. Both Jeremiah and Conrad say she’s changed. Belly takes her stuff to her room in the Beach house and then says hello to Susannah “Beck”, the boys’ mother, who gushes that she’s beautiful and that this summer is going to be a great one. 

At the dinner, all three boys continue to tease her, and after dinner, when she cannot go to sleep, Belly goes swimming at night in the pool for her midnight swims. Conrad comes to the pool area with a cigarette and beer, and Belly tells him to stop smoking, because it’s bad for him. He, in turn, asks her what he will get in return for stopping. Belly ponders the answer as Conrad has already changed so much–he had quit the football team of which he was the star, and keeps playing the guitar instead of socializing with anyone. His girlfriend apparently dumped him and now he’s smoking. She tells him that nothing, but that he should do it for himself.

Belly reminisces often throughout her stay about the prior summers—the time that the boys went camping when she was eight and Steven and Jeremiah teased her but Conrad told them to stop, which was when she fell in love with him. Then there was the time that he invited her to go to the arcade and she got excited, thinking that she’s finally going to get a chance with him, only to get her heart broken because he had wanted to see the girl who worked there. She helped him talk to her and then went on her way someplace else to give them space.

Belly’s Mom, Laurel, asks her one day if Conrad is on drugs, and Belly tells her that no, but that Steven would know better. Laurel tells her that Steven doesn’t seem to know either, and asks her to promise to tell her if she finds out because Susannah is worried about him.

Another night, Belly goes to the pool and Conrad tries to chase her away to go to sleep because Clay is there. Clay disgusts Belly because of how he acts towards her, but she accepts his invitation to go to his Fourth of July party. They go the next day, and Belly meets Cameron, who goes by Cam. They had met previously at a Latin Convention, and he had bested her in an oration. She decides to leave with him, and as a result gets into an argument with Conrad over it before, before leaving with Cam anyway. Cam drops her off giving her his sweatshirt to make sure she stays warm. He ends up inviting her to a party, and the three boys try to dissuade Belly (whose real name is Isabel) from going by saying that the party is held at a drug dealer’s place. Belly knows that Cam is straight edge and that he wouldn’t have friends like that. She goes, but then Conrad and Jeremiah show up and Jeremiah (who Belly calls Jer) sings some cheesy song to Cam. Later that night, Conrad gets very drunk, and starts arguing with another dude at the party. They are about to get into a fight, when Belly gets in between them. It’s only when Jer gets involved and talks to Conrad that Conrad backs off, and Jer takes Conrad and Belly to the car. He leaves the two of them alone to take care of something and Conrad seems to want to admit something to Belly–a moment passes between them–but it’s broken by Jer returning. Belly had hoped that Conrad would confide in her, as Jer had told her that Conrad is going through some stuff that only he could tell her.

Belly remembers the time when she was fourteen and brought her best friend, Taylor Jewel to the party. At first, Taylor had interacting with Conrad, wanting to get him as her summer fling, but then dropped him in favor of Jer, who she ended up kissing that summer. She also recalls the summer when Susannah was ill, and Jer and Belly became great friends. When they were returning from the beach, Belly and Jer had overheard Susannah tell Laurel that maybe it would be better if she had died. They often stayed home and hung out together a lot after that because Jer was really impacted a lot by Susannah’s illness and the fact that Susannah had been smoking medicinal marijuana one night with Laurel.

Belly goes out again with Cam and he admits to her that she was a pretty girl at the convention, which she struggles to believe. He ends up kissing her and Belly comes home to overhear an argument between Susannah and Laurel about living her life how Susannah wants. This freaks her out as there was only one time that there was an argument between the two before, over a dress that Belly fell in love with and Susannah wanted to purchase for her, but Laurel said no. Belly later found the dress as a gift on her bed.

Belly continues seeing Cam and one day, she invites him to dinner at Susannah’s request. They have a good time at the dinner, with Cam kissing her at the table while Jer prods how he can make out with a meat eater like Belly since Cam is a vegetarian. Conrad stays in his room all night. Another time, Belly goes for a walk at midnight with Cam, and when he asks her to play truth or dare, she asks him to go skinny dipping with her instead, because she doesn’t want to answer questions that may make her face reality. When he doesn’t, she runs home and is upset with him and Conrad.

This causes her to reminisce about the time when Taylor had visited, and they had played truth or dare. Steven chose truth, Taylor chose truth, and Jer chose dare, only to be told by Taylor to kiss someone in the room, and he chose Belly. It was her first kiss. Steven says it’s gross, and he, Belly and Conrad leave the room. Taylor comes by later and tells her that she forgives her though Belly now wishes that Taylor had never come to the house, and pretends to be asleep so she doesn’t have to deal with that. Taylor ends up having a fling with Jeremiah. One morning during the trip, she wakes up and Taylor is gone for a morning sunrise with Jeremiah, so she swims in the pool. The next day, Belly decides to go to the beach at sunrise and finds out that Taylor has been making out with Steven. Belly calls him a hypocrite because he had always complained about Taylor–though it suddenly became very clear that Steven kept showing up wherever Taylor was all that summer. Belly and Taylor get into an argument and Belly knows that their friendship is over for good–while they will stay friends, they will not be best friends. Jer later admits to her that he wishes she never invited Taylor, and Belly agrees with him.

Belly plays mini golf on a date with Cam and the next day it’s her birthday. She gets pearls from Susannah, who got it from her dad on her 16th birthday, a charm in the shape of a key from Jer, and Conrad says that he forgot her birthday. Belly shrugs it off, and goes to find the bracelet that Susannah had purchased with a different charm in order to put the new charm on.

A little while later, Conrad invites Nicole over to the house and so Belly invites Cam. The two couples argue about movies, though ultimately the vote goes for the Titanic. Conrad and Nicole leave at some point throughout the movie, and Cam asks Belly if she invited him to make Conrad jealous. She tries to say no, but isn’t very convincing. A few days later Jeremiah tells her that he didn’t think Cam was for her, and tells her that he has feelings for her, though she tells him that she doesn’t see him that way.

Belly decides to confront Conrad and tell him how she feels. Conrad tells her that she needs to let it go, and she calls him a selfish ass. Jer comes and sees that Conrad is being a jerk and tells him to stop taking out his anger on everyone else as he’s acting like dad. The boys get into a physical fight, and only Laurel is able to break them apart. Susannah asks them how long have they known, and they both hug her, with Jer being the only of the two crying. Laurel takes Belly out and tells her that Susannah’s cancer is back and just as agressive–spreading all the way to her liver.

Belly is in shock and tries to comfort Jer that night, they share a bed together in his room, falling asleep on top of the comforter, like they did as children. She wakes up, tucks him in and goes to her room, but Conrad sees her and makes some snide comments about her helping Jeremiah. Later, Belly finds Conrad sitting out on the beach and comforts him by sitting nearby. They do kiss but Conrad breaks it off saying that he cannot deal with this.

At the end of summer, they clean up the house though Belly knows that Susannah calls the cleaners after they leave, and share the last meal of the summer. Belly invites Conrad and Jer to a midnight swim where Conrad says that they will always have the beach house and summer. It’s difficult for Belly to leave the place.

Several months later, Belly sneaks out of the house and gets into a car down the street from her house, where one of the Fisher boys is waiting for her, and they both drive off together.

My Thoughts: I did enjoy this book, having read this before as well. During this second read, I still think that the story is missing some substance and lacks any character development. A lot of the book is all about Belly’s relationship with Cam and her flash backs with the prior summers that she had at the beach house. I get the impression that she doesn’t really have a depth of emotions whatsoever in the book, and just seems to go with the wind, wherever it takes her, which is not something that makes her stand out as an interesting character. I think the book has an interesting premise, and it looks like the book is setting up for a triangle between Conrad, Jer, and Belly, but it almost feels like an amateurish writer published this as none of them have the breadth of emotions that I would expect of teenagers. I can see that Conrad seems to have that teenager angst, by pulling away and withdrawing but it also seems to be a status quo type of thing for him–he’s always seemed to be more interested in his guitar for example, per Belly’s memories of them as younger teenagers/children. 

Also, as a side note–I started watching the first episode of the show based on the book, and it really made me cringe as it deviates quite a bit from the book, and Belly still falls very flat with no real depth in the episode. Thanks but no thanks.