The Summer I Turned Pretty

In the realistic fiction book that I read over the summer called The Summer I Turned Pretty written by Jenny Han, the main characters go through many conflicts and it teaches them many lessons. It is summertime and Belly and her mom are going up to their family friend Susannah’s summer house to go and have an extremely fun summer there. Susannah has two sons that are in high school. Their names are Jeremiah and Conrad. Belly, Conrad and Jeremiah are the main characters of the story. Susannah used to have cancer, but it went away and now she’s back to normal. Belly hopes that this summer she will get to hang out with her brother, Jeremiah and Conrad more because she sometimes feels left out and she had always just wanted to hang out with the three of them. Belly has always had a really big crush on Conrad and she hopes that something will happen between them during the summer. All she talks about in school with her friends is her summer house and how excited she is to go there. When she gets to the summer house she notices that everyone around her has changed and so has she.
Later on in the book, tensions start to form between people living in the house. Conrad gets really upset because his mom’s cancer came back and it has the biggest impact on him. He starts to do things he normally doesn’t do such as drink and smoke, and his judgment starts to change. The writer has a unique writing style because you don’t know what will happen next. Therefore, it makes you want to read more. I like how the author gave the characters those specific characteristics because it was very interesting to see how they all cope together. After Susannah’s cancer came back she slowly died. It was very sad for everyone and everyone knew that nothing would ever be the same. That was a sad highlight of the story. I think that the authors overall message of the story was that you should make the best of your time with all of the people that you love. They could be gone before you know it. Some literary devices that were used were, setting. The setting had an impact on the story because it was summer and Belly is at her mom’s best friend’s summer house (where they go every year). Without the setting, the story would end up being completely different (people, stories about what happened during summer etc…). my overall opinion of the book is that it was excellent and unpredictable. I would definitely recommend this to a friend because it is a very good book with many emotions and you have no idea what is going to come next.