izzymcdade 's review for:

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

3.0

---

okay my opinion has apparently changed loads on this book since i last read it which is maybe because of the show and also maybe because lola tung narrated the audiobook and she did SUCH a good job 🫶 but anyways compared to the show i think the book does a much much better job of actually emphasising that this was the summer she turned pretty... like belly doesn't realise it because she doesn't have the self-confidence and she doesn't think anything has changed but everyone else can clearly see how different she looks!!! obviously jeremiah and susannah and her mum all mention it but also she's getting hit on and flirted with by boys all over the place and even by some guys who hadn't noticed her before...... anyways i wish the show had leaned into that more. belly's friendship with taylor is SOOO much more interesting in the books too because belly lowkey just completely resents her and taylor resents belly back and they clearly are only friends now because of habit but they both just never talk about it and it's such a deliciously fucked up dynamic. love it 👍 

also also! i appreciate how clear it is that jeremiah doesn't actually love belly but just wants to have something that conrad doesn't... not even in a malicious way i don't blame him but it's very clear that he just has an inferiority complex and is projecting that onto belly mostly because she's there. and belly looks at things with SUCH rose-coloured glasses because she'll say things like "jeremiah has always been my friend he's always been so nice to me" and then cuts to a chapter of all three of the boys being really mean to her a few summers ago😭 she's such an unreliable narrator i love her. 

i didn't even mean to make this such a comparison to the tv show but realistically the reason i reread is because im tired of waiting a week between episodes of season three coming out xx