Mundie Moms

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Book Review - The Summer I Turned Pretty

By Jenny Han
Published by Simon and Schuster
Released 5 May 2009
5 Stars - It was Amazing

Summary from Goodreads - 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 -- they have been her brother figures, her crushes, and everything in between. But one 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.

I went into reading this book knowing not knowing what to expect.  This book talks about things that have been written about a hundred times over; girl finally getting noticed, hot brothers and a possible love triangle thrown into the mix.  But the way the synopsis glosses over what the plotline really is, makes it seem really ambiguous, so much so that I had to read it to find out for myself.

The Summer I Turned Pretty made me glad that I changed my mind about what I deem to be "girly books".  It made me realise that not all books for teenage girls about love and identity and finding yourself should be tarnished with the same brush.  That maybe, if you forgive your preconceived notions, you will find a gem of a book that makes sunshine burst out of you, makes you so happy your face aches from smiling too much and make your eyes hurt at the emotional intensity of it all.  The Summer I Turned Pretty was this book for me.

Belly, whose name I was unsure of at the start and then ended up coveting by the last chapter, is an amazing protagonist.  The story flips from the present to flashbacks of previous summers, which builds the foundations for the way she feels about the summer house and it's occupants.  Belly is kind and smart and immature and sometimes quite silly.  She is a perfect model of what it is to be a teenager.  Her dialogue made me laugh and really spoke to me as a reader. 

The plotline is not mindblowing, but because of the way the characters were so well drawn out and moulded into replicas of people I can relate to, I found myself  in synch with everything they were going through.  I felt every bump in the road, every jolt of the heart.  Jenny is an exceptional author, and I can't wait for her work to get the regognition and praise it derves.  This book has landed a place on my favourites list.

Labels