Anticipation for a special summer
Fifteen-year-old Belly is full of anticipation for the summer ahead, which she has eagerly awaited with salt water in her dark hair and the breeze of the sea in her nose. She has spent every summer since birth with her family at the Fishers' beach house in Cousins Beach. But this summer will be the first summer that brothers Jeremiah and Conrad Fisher perceive her not just as her older brother Steven's little sister, but as a real girl.
Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed by Jenny Han's "The Summer I Turned Pretty". I read this novel in my teens and had positive memories of it, but today, after a few years have passed, I am shocked by the lack of depth in this novel.
Disclaimer
This article is critical of the contents of the novel and contains spoilers. Please note that the opinion in this blog article is individual and based on my personal assessment. Literary taste is subjective, and other readers can and will perceive the novel differently. This article was originally written in German. Therefore, the page references may not be traceable to the English version of the book.
Tender love or youthful recklessness: a look at romantic relationships in the novel
At the age of twelve, Belly experiences her first heartbreak when, contrary to her hopes, Conrad takes her to the promenade only to meet another girl at one of the booths. Selflessly, Belly seizes the situation by the scruff of the neck and introduces Conrad to his beloved before she silently tears away. As a reader, one feels sympathy for this young girl who seems to selflessly put away her own feelings. However, the actual story, which uses a few flashbacks to underscore important moments from summers past, takes place the summer Belly turns 16.
The contradictory character Conrad Fisher
All her life Isabel, called Belly, has idolized Conrad. And this summer is no different: as soon as she arrives in Cousins Beach, she looks forward to meeting him, yet he is, to put it mildly, quite a pain in the ass. His behavior towards her is unbearable. He takes every opportunity to undermine her self-worth with disparaging comments, and yet Belly pines for him like a Taylor Swift groupie for her big idol. Conrads' tone is condescending. When talking to Belly, he fails to get off his high horse, instead treating her like an unwelcome appendage both at parties and at the beach house. The fact that he wants to protect her from alcohol and drugs seems unrealistic considering the fact that he seems to have no problem smoking or drinking in front of her. Exhibit B is this excerpt from the novel:
"I had one beer," Conrad drove at me. "Wait an hour or so and I'll drive you. Now stop acting like a spoiled brat." (page 106). Love some good manners, don't you?
Conrad is a loner, isolating himself from Belly, Steven and Jeremiah. He has moods, which at first seem unjustified to the reader, that make him seem unreachable. Belly lets the reader know this the moment Conrad steps onto the shaky stage called Cousins Beach, whose potential as a small seaside town is completely omitted: "Conrad was a year and a half older than Jeremiah. He was the dark guy, really dark. And, of course, intangible. Unattainable. He always slightly mockingly puckered his mouth, and somehow I had to stare at it all the time. You always want to kiss those sneeringly puckered mouths, want to smooth them out and kiss the sneer away."
Belly's tricky dilemma between friendship and love
So does Belly want to kiss Conrad or Jeremiah? Well, does she have to choose? The reader is allowed to turn her head back and forth, as in a good tennis match, as Belly changes her mind so often about which of the two brothers she now loves and can consider a true friend that it makes one downright dizzy. But she has to take one of the two, because Susannah, their mother, once told her: "Belly, you have my blessing, once and for all. I'd hate to lose my boys to someone else."
Jokes on you, Susannah. For instead of the love triangle that readers might expect and perhaps, with much patience, ascribe to her youthful recklessness, another boy enters the picture. Cameron, called Cam, studies whales in his spare time and remembers Belly from a Latin competition in previous years. The only one who seems to have genuine, honest intentions towards her, he doesn't shoot straight across the finish line, but takes it slow. Apparently too boring for Belly, as she drops him like a hot potato. Cam is both a stopgap to fill the pages and a means for the purpose in this story. Belly takes every opportunity to make Conrad jealous with Cam's presence. When Cam leaves Belly a voicemail at the end of the novel, asking her to call him back that they can meet one last time, Belly doesn't even call back but "lets it go." For the fact that she couldn't wait to be kissed by Cam and go skinny dipping in the ocean with him, pretty emotionally cold. But my much bigger pain point with this is that Cam lets her take advantage of him and doesn't have enough dignity himself to, after he notices and even calls Belly on the fact that she's using him to make Conrad jealous, still not run away.
Jeremiah gives me, as a reader, a good feeling for a short time, for example, when he admits to Belly that clever, self-confident girls are clearly preferable to him than helpless ones. But he ruins that at the same time, because he then follows it up with a "Taylor knew exactly what she was doing, because she was good at kissing" (page 76). He makes a declaration of love to Belly out of nowhere, but it's pretty cold to Belly; after all, it's clear to her, "Always had been Conrad, never had I seriously considered Jeremiah, not with Conrad around." Simpatico - if Conrad didn't exist or wasn't a choice, then Jeremiah might be an option? As a reader, it feels like Jenny Han is obsessively trying to get the reader to pick Jeremiah, portraying him as the nicer one: "Jeremiah, on the other hand - he was my friend. He was nice to me. He was the type of boy who still hugged his mother and who still held her hand, even though he was theoretically too old to do so."
Congratulations, Belly. From the girl with horn-rimmed glasses, you've managed to get boobs and now feel beautiful - and three hormone-driven guys, one of whom didn't know you before and two others who ignored/insulted/sneered at you, are now after you. Of all three "to choose from" guys, the choice is actually pretty simple and clear, provided you're not into being humiliated and excluded.
Maturity or greenness: Bellys' search for belonging
"'Children,' Susannah calls the teenagers at the summer house in Cousins Beach." Belly describes that it feels like her whole life is ahead of her. But this summer, Belly wants to belong: "Steven, if you don't take me, I'm going to tell Mom," Belly threatens her older brother. The scene makes abundantly clear the difficult phase she is going through. While one part of her is literally crying out to be mature, is in love with Conrad and desperately wants to be part of the group, the other part is still entirely in its infancy and reflects her lack of assertiveness.
Bellys' character was harder for me to bear from page to page. She shoots herself in the foot with her comments: "I was glad that I had spoiled his evening" (page 110). While at the beginning I briefly pitied her for being a gray mouse who seems to keep herself rather in the background due to her shyness, this sympathy gives way rather quickly when she changes boys like underpants and at the same time condemns her "best friend" for the same behavior.
Between envy and contempt: the dark side of unhealthy friendship
Taylor is just the friend no one needs. Belly stands in her shadow, and while Taylor tries to win Conrad over with a provocative bikini, it becomes clear that Belly could do well without her. Taylors' shiniest skill seems to be her superficiality. When she's not talking about Bellys' cleavage, prodding her to put on something short and sexy, she's ridiculing her in front of her brother, Conrad, and Jeremiah. Her biggest concern seems to be that Belly will get too wide a back from swimming and then look unattractive to the male world. She takes what she wants regardless. Even when she makes out with Bellys' brother Steven on the beach. When she was originally interested in Conrad and Jeremiah... But maybe it's in the nature of both girls that one boy or two boys just aren't enough. I have to give Belly credit for giving Taylor hell for a brief moment in one scene and coming close to admitting for herself. Less classy, she insults her best friend as a " slut" in the process (page 169).
Steven who?
Then there is the relationship with Bellys' brother Steven. We don't particularly learn much about it, if we except for the fact that Steven knows how to bully Belly and likes to take advantage of his age gap. For much of the novel, he's not even present, instead touring the states with Bellys' father and visiting colleges.
A missed opportunity: the unheard story of Laurel and Susannah
In very brief chapters and a simple, childlike writing style, the only interesting thing, Laurel and Susannah's connection, also falls by the wayside. Susannah Fisher and Laurel (yes, we never even get to know their family name) share a very special friendship: they met at the tender age of nine. The birth of their children has strengthened their friendship, and even the long distance that separates them during the year cannot harm this bond for life. Laurel seems very independent. She has the courage to take her life by the scruff of the neck and at the same time is terribly rational. With Susannah as their mother, the boys are totally lucky, Belly thinks. Susannah is less strict, not so uptight. You can just have fun with her. At least you could, if she wasn't miserable all the time: She goes to bed early, has hardly any appetite and compulsively wants to experience the perfect summer. So it's no big surprise when her far-advanced cancer is revealed. Instead of a big bang, it's more of a final, failed attempt to breathe emotional depth into the story.
Empty words that slow down the novel
Instead of rousing summer moments, readers here are treated to a boring, monotonous story that only superficially touches on the themes of personal groth and coming of age while making do with stereotypical characters. Emotional resonance is absent.
I look forward to constructive exchanges in the comments. Who has already read the novel and felt similarly? Or completely different and why?
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