by Neha, Grade 10
The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy is a 3-book series about teenager Belly Conklin as she grows up, surrounded by her brother Steven, her mother Laurel, family friends Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher, and their beloved mother, Susannah Fisher.
3. It’s Not Summer Without You
It’s Not Summer Without You, the second book of this trilogy, was unfortunately the weakest. After watching the TV show adaptation of this book, I had very high hopes for it, but I was a little disappointed to find that the plot differs a lot between the books and the show. In the TV show adaptation of this installment, Belly helps Conrad and Jeremiah rush to save their late mother’s beach house. They’re accompanied by Belly’s best friend Taylor, and Steven. But in the book, Taylor and Steven are completely cut out from the journey. I felt like author Jenny Han should have added them into the story to help save the house- after all, Steven is as much a part of the family as Belly, and Taylor and Steven’s side story added comedic relief and breaks from always paying attention to Belly and the Fisher boys. Although it did feel more intimate by having tensions run high without breaks in this book, I felt myself a little frustrated at how miserable Belly was without her brother and best friend by her side. In the case of It’s Not Summer Without You, I think the TV show did it better.
2. We’ll Always Have Summer
This one was the finale of the trilogy, and had a perfect closing. I’d say that as far as low points goes for this book, I thought the introduction was a little boring, since not much action happened. However, the last third of the book was extremely action-packed and surprising. Han definitely threw a lot of revelations at the reader, which all shocked me. I think that this book ended strongly, and Han set it up in a way that I almost knew how it would end, but I wasn’t completely sure, which was very satisfying. After Belly, Conrad, and Jeremiah started acting in ways that shocked me, the ending felt like a moment of calm and reassurance amidst the storm, and it also felt like a well-deserved happily ever after, following all of the stress, frustration, and anxiety that Belly was experiencing. I think this book could have benefited from more drama in the beginning, or even starting the plot twists earlier in the book so that I didn’t have to work my way through two-thirds of the novel before things started getting really interesting.
1. The Summer I Turned Pretty
This. Book. Was. So. Good. The setting and plot of book 1 are probably the best out of the series, since this one had the drama of both the beginning of Belly’s love triangle, as well as Susannah Fisher’s shocking cancer diagnosis. I think it was the perfect setup book for the rest of the series to follow, and it defined the characters really well, giving them strong personalities but also a lot of room to grow and evolve over the rest of the series. This book also had more characters than the others, and by watching the way Belly reacted to those characters, like Cam and Taylor who were introduced for the first time, I could understand Belly more, since I needed to understand Belly to understand the series. I think the style of the first book was also a little different than the others. It contained a lot of flashbacks, for one, which I enjoyed because they helped me understand the characters but also gave me something to smile about even despite the happy-on-the-surface-but-very-sad plot. Belly was also a moodier, more emotional person in the first book, which I liked. Since Belly narrates the books, I appreciated her vivid commentary and bold opinions about everyone. In book 2, after Susannah’s death, her narration became more subdued- which was absolutely intentional and strategic, but I also found myself missing her fiery personality. Overall, this was a great read, especially for Summer.
Add a comment to: The Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy, Ranked