THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY by Jenny Han
Some summers are just destined to be pretty
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 wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.
MY THOUGHTS:
Belly might have felt the magic of summer, but I, unfortunately, did not. The Summer I Turned Pretty is rather plain and dressed down, which at first has the perfect making of a cute summer read. Quickly, though, it fizzles out - the magic, the summer, the fun... it all fizzles.
I was immediately caught off guard and detached from Belly, the main character, because of her young age. The story takes place during her sixteenth birthday, but is also told through memories from when she was as young as ten. In the context of the story, this didn't work for me. Her age + the romance = lackluster and Awkward (with a capital A).
None of it really made sense to me; I struggled to find its purpose. The issues between the parents, friends and siblings don't work cohesively. While they come together in the end, they don't explain why other events are necessary. Simply put, I don't understand how we get from point A to point B.
The Summer I Turned Pretty is a big question mark to me. It's cute and summery at times, but it doesn't do much in terms of plot or character.
