The Summer I Turned Pretty by. Jenny Han | Book Review | Re-read

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Summer I Turned Pretty

Author: Jenny Han

Format: ebook (borrowed)

Pages: 276

Publication Date: 5/4/09

Publisher: Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers

Categories: Young Adult, Romance, Teen, Summer, Coming of Age

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. 

Content Warning: cancer

I read this back in 2009 and gave it 4 stars on Goodreads! That was 13 years ago…wow, I was single or just about to date my hubby. Crazy how long ago it was and my headspace was super different. Now I’m in my early 40’s with 2 kids, one who’s about to turn 10 years old. 😅 I don’t usually review re-reads but I will definitely do them if I never did a review for them on this blog. And I only did a re-read of this because the series on Amazon came out and I think they did such a good job. But so many people said lots of things were changed and I wanted to see what they were since I didn’t really remember the book except for being annoyed with Belly and being in love with Conrad. 😂

Here’s what I thought:

+ This is a such a quick read, it’s only 276 pages! Now young adult books can be like 500 pages long, so this was quick. It gave all the summer vibes as expected. I did forget all the time jumping it did from past summers to the present. The show didn’t do as many flashbacks as the book.

+ Jeremiah and Belly have more time together in the book than in the show. I can feel their bestie vibes.

+ Conrad is still that guy! I can see why I fell for Conrad because he’s the hurting, handsome guy and I was reminded that Belly was always in love with this guy. It’s always Conrad for her.

~ Because I’m so much more older – this actually bored me a bit. Belly is whiny and understandable because she is young! It’s jumping timelines from when she’s 11 to 14 to 15, etc…so we see her as a whiny girl. And I can’t see that much changes from 11 to 16. I can see why Conrad pushes her away and I’m glad he does.

~ There are SO many changes from the book to the show, I can see why hardcore fans didn’t love the show! There is no debutant ball in the book, Steven doesn’t stay for that summer when she turns 16 – he is in flashbacks though. I get why they made the changes….how do you stretch out this 276 book into 7 episodes? I felt like they did have all the parts from the book in the show though – like all those late night talks with Conrad. I don’t mind the extra stuff I thought it made it entertaining. But yes so many different changes from the book.

Why you should read it:

• perfect for teen readers, it’s short, has summer vibes and summer crushes

Why you might not want to read it:

• Way different from the Amazon series!
• Belly is still annoying me after all these years 😂 but she doesn’t annoy me that much on the show

My Thoughts:

I’m glad I did my first read in 2009 and loved it as a story about a young girl who has these amazing summers with 2 boys and their lovely mom. It’s about friendship at its core and love. At my age now, I do prefer the show because there is many more things happening to keep me entertained but I can see why that didn’t make fans of the series happy also because a whole lot of things were added! But I will say this – them using “This Love” from Taylor Swift for the trailer was genius because this song is ALLLLLLL Belly and Conrad forever feels lol. So here’s a video:

📚 ~ Yolanda

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Quotes From the Book:

“I love Conrad and I probably always would. I would spend my whole life loving him one way or another. Maybe I would get married, maybe I would have a family, but it wouldn’t matter, because a piece of my heart, the piece where summer lived, would always be Conrad’s” 

― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty

“It’s hard to throw away history. It was like you were throwing away a part of yourself.” 

― Jenny Han, The Summer I Turned Pretty