The Summer I Turned Pretty Book Review by Alyssah Alvarez

 The Summer I Turned Pretty Book Review by Alyssah Alvarez

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han is a book about a summer romance and the journey of growing up. The main character, Belly, spends her summer with her family and friends at their beach house. She faces lots of new changes and challenges throughout her summer. This book is great for people who love reading romance novels.

Plot summary

This novel is about a girl named Belly. Every summer her family spends the summer at a beach house with their close friends, the Fisher family. The Fisher boys, Conrad and Jeremiah, have been a big part of her summers. They’ve known each other since they were little and they grew up with each other. But, this summer is different because Belly is all grown up. The boys start to look at her in a way they never did before. Belly navigates the challenges of friendship, love, and growing up. She gets caught up with her complicated feelings. Her friendship with Conrad and Jeremiah starts to change and becomes complicated. She also struggles with discovering who she truly is and navigates the challenges that come with growing up.

Themes

Some of the themes that appear throughout this book are nostalgia, self-discovery, and love. This summer is different because Belly is all grown up and she is not a kid anymore. They have been going to the same beach house since they were little kids and so many memories have been made there. The beach house has been their safe space, a place where memories are made and the world outside feels unimportant. As the book goes on, Belly begins to realize that the beach house, which has always been there in her life, may not always be there for her in the future. Belly has to learn to let go and that life moves on. Belly also struggles with trying to find her true identity and who she wants to be. She realizes she is starting to grow up, and this is difficult for her. She does not fully understand what she wants yet and her feelings are very complicated. In addition, Belly faces the challenge of friendship and love. She has to choose who she wants to be friends with and who she truly loves. She has known the boys for so long, which makes it even harder for her to decide. 

My thoughts on the book

I thought this book was entertaining and interesting to read. The writing style made it easy to feel connected with the characters in the story. This book clearly shows what growing up feels like and what kinds of problems there might be along the way. The author uses a nostalgic tone to emphasize the feeling of growing up. The author uses detailed descriptions to describe how the characters feel and it makes it easier to visualize what the characters are going through. Overall, I think this book is great and I recommend reading it.