Lately, I've been choosing my next read extra carefully. One wrong decision and the slump will come and get me instantly. That's why my Kindle is full of samples now, one of them was The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han.
I had been debating whether or not I should give it a try for a long, long time already—years before it was announced to be a tv serial, just a hit teenage trilogy circulating regularly in my bookstragram golden era. What finally intrigued me was the trailer though, from how fun it looked to how light and enjoyable I thought it would be.
Fortunately, it ended up quite enjoyable. Certainly not my favorite, don't think I will have the desire to reread it in the future, but it was overall quite okay. Following the story of Isabel, better known as Belly, in the first summer she turns pretty, this book introduces us to the important things in her summer time every year: Cousins beach, summer house, her Mom and Susannah, the Beck's boys Conrad and Jeremiah, and even her brother Steven.
All along, Belly has always been Steven's little sister, the one left out, often called the tattletale. She has always tried her hardest to win them over, to be a part of the boys even if it means she needs to whine to get what she wants while keeping it a secret that she has had a huge crush on Conrad her entire life. But this summer, the first summer she turns pretty, Belly is sure that everything is going to be different.
Not gonna lie, The Summer I Turned Pretty was really cute at first. After a few pages into it, I was so sure that I was going to adore the book that I bought it right away. And I was partly right. Reading this book from Belly's point of view was certainly a great way to get nostalgic about your teenage years. She described her feeling so blatantly true, and it made me wonder just how easy it was for every teenager to relate to one another: the lonely phase all of us used to go through as a teenager, the way we used to crave validation from others, that so-called first love we could not seem to get over even if we had stated otherwise, and the first real change we had to face coming right after high school.
I guess this was what made this book lovable for many. Her romance with Conrad, Jeremiah, and Cam (another new guy), even if cliché, was easy to follow. The flashback parts were my favorite. But at some point, Belly was too immature for her age that it got tiring. It was implied a thousand times that she thought her friend Taylor Jewel was selfish, and while I could see that Taylor was not a really great friend, I thought Belly was honestly worse. She was selfish to her closest also, and what made it even more tiring, she was too childish.
I knew she was a teenager. I knew she still needed a lot of growing up to do. But like people always say, age is just a number. Turning sixteenth was not a good enough reason to feel like the world should give you everything you wanted. As for Conrad, the brooding, cool brother, I liked him at first. I really did. And I knew he had gone through a lot, but stringing Belly along the entire summer seemed too much at one point. I just hoped they got better development in the next installments.
In conclusion, The Summer I Turned Pretty was pretty cute. If only the characters were more mature, I would highly recommend this book to spend your summer holidays with. Just remember that everyone tastes differently. Even if this book was not really for me, who knows that it would work wonders on you?
Actual rating: 3.1★
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