Hey guys! I know that I haven’t posted in a while, and really that’s my fault. I am going to try to be way more on top of it. But on the plus side, NEW SERIES ALERT!!! I am going to be doing a series where I compare a book to it’s movie or TV show. I am starting off strong with one of my new favourite series, The Summer I Turned Pretty (TSITP for short)! In this post I am just going to review and compare the first book of the series, and then I’ll do a post for the second book soon. I did watch season 1 before I read book 1, so I may have been a little biased. I haven’t seen the third season because it isn’t released yet, and so I didn’t read the book in fear of spoilers. As soon as season 3 of TSITP comes out, I will watch it and read the book, and then write a blog post for you guys. Now, let’s get into it

The Summer I Turned Pretty

Jenny Han

So, I am going to start off by telling you what happens in this book, as well as informing you of any extra or different things that happened in the TV show, and then I will actually compare the two. The main character is a 16 year old girl named Isabel (Belly) Conklin. Every summer, Belly, her brother Steven (17), and her mom Laurel, drive up to Cousins Beach to stay with the Fisher family, at their beach house. Susannah Fisher has been Laurel’s best friend since university, and Susannah has two boys that are named Jeremiah (16) and Conrad (18). Both the Fisher family and the Conklin family have been through a lot. Susannah just recovered from cancer, and Laurel and her husband just got a divorce. But back to Belly. Belly has had the biggest crush on Conrad for years, and this year she finally thinks he will notice her. I have one kind of off topic thing to say right now. I just think that the whole part about Belly becoming “pretty” is kind of stupid because all that changed was that she ditched the glasses and the braces. Having glasses and braces doesn’t make you ugly, and neither does not having any of those things. I also feel like her “transformation” was not emphasized enough on the books. The books mostly focused on her always being left out and feeling like a little kid when hanging out with Steven, and Jere and Conrad. That was my little rant portion of the review, now let me get back into the summary. Belly has always desperately wanted to be included in all of the things that the boys do at the beach house, and she thinks that this year she might be included. However, Conrad quit the football team (which was like his passion), has become increasingly moody, and also smokes pot (only in the TV show)???!!! This makes Belly feel very distant from Conrad, and just sad. To be honest, Conrad is a red flag if I’ve ever seen one. But now to Jeremiah. Jeremiah and Belly are best friends, but now Jeremiah is sort of noticing Belly as wifey material In my opinion, Jeremiah is so much hotter than Conrad. Like Conrad is Edward, and Jeremiah is Jacob (ifykyk 😏). Jeremiah is also a lot funnier and has a much better personality. However, this is only in the show. In the books, I find Jeremiah a bit annoying, and I am actually team Connie for the books. But don’t get me wrong, in the show I am #TeamJellyFisher for life. Susannah convinces Belly to be part of this debutante ball. The deb ball is basically like a coming-of-age ball for girls that are Belly’s age. The only catch is, she has to get a date. But Belly isn’t too worried, because she’s started dating this boy named Cameron, who is pretty much everything she ever wanted. Then Belly realizes she is too distracted by Conrad and Jere, and so she breaks up with Cam. Belly also catches her best friend, Taylor, making out with Belly’s brother Steven. They have a fight, but eventually make up so it does work out. This situation happens in the books as well, but just the summer before. Belly makes some really bad choices throughout the course of the show (skinny dipping, getting really drunk at a 4th of July party, etc.), none of which happen in the book. Jeremiah ends up telling Belly his feelings in their pool, and they kiss. This leads Belly to end up taking Jeremiah to the deb ball. Side note, but the escort dance at the deb ball (I was literally dying)!!!!! However, Jeremiah finds out why Conrad has been so moody when he checks his mother’s phone. He realizes that his mother has had a relapse of her cancer, and is going to die, which explains why Conrad has been so moody. Jere confronts Conrad about it, and they get into a huge fight. Then Conrad confesses his feelings to Belly and then they also kiss (like stop copying Jere and go smoke some more weed Connie 🙄). Belly tells Jeremiah that she and Conrad are together, and they end things on a really rough note. That scene my heart broke a little. Belly decides to break up with Conrad, but me and you both now that girl wants Connie bad. I Now the ending is the same for the book and the show, but the whole debutante ball thing doesn’t even happen in the book. In the end, I do like season 1 of TSITP better than book 1 of TSITP. I just feel like the book was very anticlimactic. There was no plot besides the whole Belly, Connie, and Jere love triangle, whereas in the show there was the whole debutante ball. And I hate to say it but the books made me Team Connie (ONLY FOR THE BOOK) and I absolutely hated that because I really love Jeremiah in the TV show. Jeremiah was just annoying and immature, and he didn’t have the same charismatic personality that he did in the show. I also feel like Taylor was considerably more annoying in the books, and even though I didn’t think Taylor was the best in the show, in the books Taylor just straight up sucks as a friend.

So overall, the show beats the book, but that’s just for book/season 1. Who knows what my hot take will be on book/szn 2! As you guys can tell I am Team Jeremiah (no hate), but I can see Connie’s allure and his good side. Hope you guys liked the long awaited blog post! BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!