A Lazy Reader's Review of "The Summer I Turned Pretty" by Jenny Han
Synopsis
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, one wonderful and terrible summer, the more everything changes, the more it all ends up just the way it should have been all along.
Review
I was getting out of a reading slump when I picked this book up. I had read To All the Boys I've Loved Before series, written by the same author, and loved it. It was my first introduction into the "fake dating" trope. So, seeing that this book was written by the same author I thought I would enjoy this book as much as I did the others. Unfortunately . . . this was not the case.
But, before getting into the nitty-gritty, I want to talk about what I did like. I read this book in January, so during the winter. I read a book about summer in the winter. And let me tell you, I hate summer with a passion. The heat, the bugs, feelings disgusting in my own skin, all of it. But, this book made me kind of want it to be summer. It reminded me of all the things I did like about summer. Swimming, grilling outside, being with friends and family, it even made me want to go to the beach. And I hate the beach. I felt like this book did a really good job in transporting me, the reader, into the feeling of summer. And I really liked that. I also think that this book is great for middle grade and high school. I think that if I had read this book at that time I probably would have liked it a lot more. I thought the story was decent and while there weren't any incredible moments, it was still a decent read.
Okay, now it's time to talk shit. My main issue with this book was the way that Han used her other female characters. The only other girls we meet that are Belly's age are Taylor, Belly's childhood friend, and Nicole, who had a brief fling with Conrad. These are the only two female characters, aside from Belly, Susannah, and Laurel, that are introduced in the book. And they are nothing by archetypes. Taylor is boy obsessed and Belly gets upset with her when she begins to show interest in Belly's brother when she joined them at their summer house. Nicole is an obstacle that stands in the way between Belly and Conrad, who she's had a crush on since forever. Both of these girls are lambasted by Belly and the author. Taylor, as I said before, is boy-crazed and because of this, Belly views her in a negative light and begins to judge the clothes she starts to wear around her older brother. Girl, it's summer, let her wear her shorter-than-need-be shorts. Nicole is immediately judged for her makeup. I distinctly remember Belly saying that she was wearing too much bronzer. Oh my god, who gives a fuck. Belly is always annoyed when Nicole is around because it means that she is taking Conrad's attention away from her. I noticed pretty quickly that these two characters served no purpose aside from making Belly seem better than them. She is everything they are not. Belly is not boy-crazed, she does not wear short-shorts, she doesn't cake her face with make up, and she isn't dating Conrad. It was really disappointing to see that Han made the choice to include this in the book. We do not slut shame in this household! And I can't even say that it worked because Belly fell so flat as a character. So bland. So unassuming and very disappointing.
Making female characters as lesser than your main female character is such a cliche and so overused. If the only way you can make your main female character appealing or seem like a better person is to bring down other female characters, maybe you need to go back to Character Work 101. Your main character should be able to stand on their own two feet in order to be seen as a good person. This tactic is not the way.
I'll end my rant here by stating that even though I had some pretty big issues with this book, I still enjoyed it. I will not, however, be continuing this series.
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