The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
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 terrible and wonderful summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.
MY OPINION: ******
I feel like the more times I read this book, the more I love it. It keeps getting better and I can definitely catch things that I didn't see the first time, which is always exhilarating. Jenny Han manages to capture the very essence of a hopeless romantic's soul and she creates such realistic and amazing characters that you either relate to or want to shake a little until they get some sense into their head.
The first couple of times reading this book, I was more focused on the romance and the amazing wonderful god that is Conrad Fisher but now as I am rereading, I'm noticing the more important things and the subliminal messages that I missed the first couple of times around.
For example, when reading this book for the first time, I thought that Conrad seemed like the more broken one. But in reality, it's more Jeremiah whose broken up over everything that's happening to him, only he hides it behind his jokes and humor.
Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher are Beck's boys. Our MC, Isabel "Belly" Conklin, has known them her whole life. She sees them every summer at the summer house. The summer house belongs to Susannah, Belly's mother's best friend, also known as Beck. Susannah's sons, Conrad and Jeremiah, have matured throughout the books but in this first book, they're both broken boys, but in their own ways.
Belly has been in love with Conrad for years and years. However, to all of the boys (Conrad, Jeremiah, and her older brother, Steven), she's always just been a little kid who's annoying and follows them everywhere. Her whole life, Belly has just wanted to be a part of the group and this summer, the summer she's sixteen and the summer she "turned pretty" has finally allowed her to be accepted by the boys.
The whole thing about "becoming pretty" wasn't the best concept but to be honest, in this book, it worked. I believe in the idea that everyone is beautiful and you don't just randomly "turn pretty". However, this book was so flighty and also serious that it helped me to accept the fact that Belly thought that by growing into herself and blossoming, the boys have finally started to treat her like "one of them" rather than their annoying little sister.
Conrad is described as "Dark, dark, dark" but in my head, I imagined him to have this aura about him. I'm sure Belly feels the same. She has been in love with him for as long as she can remember and this is the summer where she notices differences in the way he looks at her and treats her. However, Conrad has always been this amazing guy who was nice, smart, and had the looks to go along with it. He cares about grades, he's athletic, and he was the only one who tried to help Belly out when she was younger (inviting her along, telling the others to stop teasing her, etc).
Jeremiah. He's the younger cherub of a brother with wild blond hair and a sense of humor. While Conrad is mysterious and keeps to himself with his guitar (guitar-playing guy that I actually liked, which is rare), Jeremiah is a happy angel who's not afraid to put himself out there and dance and sing and tell jokes in a serious time. He lightens the mood and he brightens people's days and he's Belly's best friend.
Steven seemed like any other older brother and I loved how he cared about his sister and was really protective of her but was also the annoying type who didn't want her around, which is understandable.
Taylor, Belly's best home friend, was not a huge part of the book but she was brought up enough to show that she was a part of Belly's life. I thought that although she wasn't the best friend, she was still there when Belly needed her and was determined to always get the guy.
Susannah was sick and there were a lot of problems regarding that that caused Conrad and Jeremiah to detach themselves from their everyday lives and do things out of the ordinary. Conrad starts drinking and smoking and he is moody and keeps to himself. That's just his way of dealing with his grief and anger, although Belly does not understand that. Jeremiah was not afraid to admit his feelings to Belly and just cry it all out. He was a happy kid with a lot of pent-up emotion that he wasn't afraid to show.
Susannah was the sweetest mother and she was so different from Belly's mother, Laurel, that it was obvious how they got to be best friends.
Both boys were broken and Belly was the buffer who brought them together. The romance in this book was inexplicably beautiful and I couldn't help but fall in love with Conrad along with Belly. It seemed real and caused me to cry at one point. Jeremiah's feelings caused so much pain both to Belly and to me because it made us confused as to who to choose. I feel like I lived in the story with the characters. The writing may not have been the most complex but the way it was written was beautiful and really resonated with me and other readers. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a romantic, more serious summer read!
Main Character: Belly
Sidekick(s): Conrad, Jeremiah, Steven, Taylor, Susannah, etc
Villain(s): Cancer, anger, grief, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This is all very real to life.
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