#19 of 2012: The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
The Summer It Turned Ugly, more like. What a disappointment, since I’ve been waiting to read this for a year. YA HEAR THAT, JENNY HAN, A YEAR! Only to find out there was nothing to really look forward to, that is if only I liked a fluffy story going pop-pop-pop in the vastness of the skies. See, even my sentence construction has been affected after I’ve read this! And I say things like sentence construction now! *thunderrr* Seriously, I don’t understand how this went on to become a bestseller. And more seriously, I don’t know why I still haven’t learned anything about bestsellers after Twilight. *sparkle* Okay, hold up, before the Boo!s, to be fair, there are Yay!s about this book:
Yay!s
-Beach! I love how there seemed to be water everywhere in the story! (Although if I were in the story, I would have asked to be the Sea Monster and drowned them all - even Susannah, who was supposed to be the “cool mom” in spite of having the big C.) If you love the beach (or The Beach, as in Alex Garland’s book or the body of water), then this is a go!
-Beach! Read! Spoken like a true teenager, is all I can say. (And spoken as a former teenager, this was the kind of teenager I’d never wish on anybody to be.)
Boo!s
-I couldn’t believe that someone could write off all the things I hate about a female teenage character! Belly, who if I may add is stupidly named, is stubborn, boy-crazy, selfish, unoriginal, and annoying. Yes, it’s how lots of teenagers are but I’m sure even those teenagers have more personality than her.
-How the story was written and the way dialogues were written were just horrible, IMHO. If I once thought Sarah Dessen and Susane Colasanti could get lame at several points in their novels, they are actually nowhere close to Han’s suckfest. WHOA LOOK AT THAT SHE’S GETTING TO MEEEE
-The plot itself wasn’t interesting enough. There were a lot of times I didn’t want to go on anymore but I kept on hoping there was going to be more of Cam’s story, who was Belly’s straight edge maybe boyfriend, or Jeremiah’s even, who were the only two interesting characters in all. I swear, even Belly’s dad who had an affair with his college student or whatever appealed more to me than the lead characters.
-ALL OF THESE ABOVE or that this book wasn’t just for me.
