Title: The Summer I Turned Pretty
Author: Jenny Han
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Length: 276
Rating: 4/5
This book was recommended to me by another blogger, Ashlie Swaiston of Bookish Novelties. Check it out- it’s awesome (know how you love books that make you FEEL? She makes you feel just reading about the books!). And she just put up reviews of the two books in the series that follow this one if you want to learn more.
Belly spends all her summers at Susannah’s beach house. Susannah is her mom’s best friend and mother to Conrad and Jeremiah, Belly’s brother-figures, friends, and crushes.
I decided to read this book while it was still summer, but turns out this book is about the summer that changes everything, and it hit pretty close to home, as this is my last summer before real life hits. Jenny Han is great with tone- this book was dripping with nostalgia, and made me rethink all my favorite summer moments, but also all those what-could-have-been moments. Belly is scared for a future that doesn’t involve summers at the beach house, scared for the unknown. Aren’t we all scared for the unknown?
This was very much a coming of age story. Belly discovers herself and comes to better understand the fleetingness of life itself.
And then there are the boys. Will Belly choose to be with Jeremiah, her best friend? Conrad, the boy she’s always loved? Or Cam, the boy who noticed her before she was pretty? For a while I thought, I’ve read books like this before, I know how she’s going to pick. But then I kept guessing and reading and guessing and never really knew until the end.
Emily,
ReplyDeleteI think I actually stole it from another blog...I forget which blog. I think it might have been a library rating or something like that. Not sure, just didn't want to take all of the credit!