The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

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Description:

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.

Age Recommendation: 16+ or 10th grade and up

General Content:

Language: 5/10- Half of the chapters in the novel have offensive language or derogatory terms.

Alcohol & Drugs: 5/10- Many of the chapters have underage drinking/ smoking (cigarettes), going to parties (with alcohol), and an instance of smoking marijuana. One or more of the underage characters appear drunk.

Violence & Gore: 2/10- A couple random random fights, but nothing major.

Sexual Content: 5/10- Very little happens between the characters, other than kissing. However, much of the book is oversexualized in how the girls are talked/thought about and what they would like to do or have done with their boy/girlfriends. Very hormone-driven/ teenage angst.

Parent Guide:

Tropes: Friends to lovers, summer romance, coming-of-age/self-discovery.

Ch. 1

-Belly, the main character, mentions that her parents are divorced.

-Belly’s brother (Steven) and mom (Laurel) tease her about whether she still has a crush on either of the two boys named Conrad and Jeremiah.

-Belly’s mother has a best friend named Susannah (aka Beck), they are “blood sisters” and “had scars to prove it- identical marks on their wrists that looked like hearts”.

-Belly describes the boys and thinks about how she only knows "summer" them. She jealously thinks about the girls that know them in the winter, has snowball fights with them in the woods, and cuddles up next to them in the cold.

-Conrad is described as having a smirky kind of mouth. Belly then notes that “smirky mouths make you want to kiss them, smooth them out and kiss the smirkiness away. Or maybe not away…but you want to control it somehow. Make it yours. It was exactly what I wanted to do with Conrad. Make him mine”.

Ch. 2

-When Belly was 12, Conrad invited her to the boardwalk. Excited that he wanted to spend time with her, she agreed to go, until she realized that he wanted to go just to see the girl working the ringtoss. Belly notes that the girls' shorts were too short, and that they looked better on her than they would on Belly because the girls' legs “were skinny and freckled, and so were her arms. Everything about her was skinny, even her lips.”.

Ch. 4

-Belly gave her mom’s friend a hug and told her, “'You look thin.' I told her, partly because it was true and partly because I knew she loved to hear it. She was always on a diet, always watching what she ate. To me, she was perfect.”

-This summer, Belly believes, will be different because she has “turned pretty": “It was a summer I’d never, ever forget. It was the summer everything began. It was the summer I turned pretty. Because for the first time, I felt it. Pretty, I mean”.

Ch. 5

-At dinner on the first night, there are wineglasses for everyone, even the kids who were 18-15. “I think we’re all old enough to partake now, don’t you, Laur?” Susannah said as we sat down. “I don’t know about that,” my mother began, but then she stopped. “Oh, all right. Fine. I’m being provincial, isn’t that right, Beck?”.

-Jeremiah pulls up his shirt to show Belly his scar from football. How brother teases him for showing his “two pack” to only Belly.

-After someone calls Belly lovely, Steven retorts, calling his sister a “lovely pain in my a**”.

Ch. 7

-Belly mentions that she thinks her dad's “grad student girlfriend” picked out the perfume he gifted her.

Ch. 9

-In years prior, Susannah had gone through chemo and usually wore a wig.

-Conrad was at the edge of the pool smoking a cigarette and drinking beer: “Everything felt normal again. I splashed water at his legs as he walked away. 'Screw you,' I said to his back."

Ch. 11

-Belly recalls a memory from when she was 9, they were playing cards on the deck with their mom’s drank margaritas and smoked a cigarette. When Belly tells her mom smoking will “shorten her lifespan”, her mother rebuttals with by calling her a doomsayer.

-“My mother liked to feel superior to Susannah for not changing her name. ‘After all, why should a woman have to change her name for a man? She shouldn’t. ‘Laurel, please shut up,’ said Susannah”.

Ch. 12

-Susannah makes her husband a “ginger and Maker's mark”.

-Belly opens up about her parents’ divorce: “I think my dad stopped being my hero when I saw him with one of his PhD students after he and my mother separated. She wasn’t even pretty. It would be easy to blame my dad for the whole thing—the divorce, the new apartment. But if I blamed anyone, it was my mother. Why did she have to be so calm, so placid? At least my father cried. At least he was in pain. My mother said nothing, revealed nothing. Our family broke up, and she just went on. It wasn’t right”.

-“She knew what she didn’t want. And that was to be married to my father. I wasn’t sure if it was that she fell out of love or if it was that she just never was. In love, I mean”.

Ch. 13

-Belly’s mom asked her if Conrad was doing drugs. “'Will you promise to tell me if you hear something?' 'I don’t know…,' I said teasingly. I didn’t need to promise her. I knew Conrad wasn’t doing drugs. A beer was one thing, but he would never do drugs. I would bet my life on it. 'Belly, this is serious.' 'Mom, chill. He’s not doing drugs. When’d you turn into such a narc, anyway? You’re one to talk.' I elbowed her playfully”.

Ch. 14

-Belly recalls a memory from when she was 13, the four of them were downstairs hanging out when they suddenly smelled weed from upstairs. Conrad admits that it’s his mom’s; she uses it after chemo treatments.

-Belly’s mom and Susannah come down giggling and hungry. Steven and Belly realize that their mom had also partaken in Susannah’s post-treatment smoke.

-“‘Mom, everyone knows you guys were smoking pot upstairs,’ Conrad said.”…Susannah choked out a laugh, and my mother threw a Twizzler at the back of Steven’s head. “Smart-a**. I’m offering up moral support to my best friend in the world. There are worse things.” Steven asks if he could also smoke one day, to which his mom replies, “‘When you get breast cancer,’ my mother told him, exchanging a smile with Susannah, her best friend in the world. ‘Or when your best friend does,’ Susannah said.”.

-Susannah and Laurel share a moment. Susannah is anxious about having to possibly have a mastectomy. She states, “'I hate myself for even thinking this, but I almost think I’d rather die than lose my breast.'. They begin to cry, to lighten the mood, Laurel states, “in her most serious, most deadpan voice, ‘Your boobs really are pretty god***n amazing.’ Susannah burst out into laughter that sounded like a seal barking, and then she was laughing and crying at the same time”.

-Not knowing what just happened, Steven teases Belly and Jeremiah about coming back somber. He asks if they shared their first kiss. When Jeremiah gets upset and walks away, Steven states, “Jeremiah, are you on your period or something? I was just kidding, man!”.

Ch. 16

-Belly talks about her best friend Taylor, saying she’s “the pretty one”. Taylor gets off the plane in “short shorts and a tank top”, and Belly tries not to be jealous as she asks where Taylor got her new fit. She responds with “My mom took me shopping for beach stuff right before I left…She feels bad she and Daddy are getting a divorce, so she’s buying me all kinds of stuff,”.

-“The boys came to attention right away. Right away they looked at her, checked out her smallish B-cups and her blond hair”.

-Steven makes fun of Taylor, she comes back with “go back to jacking off, Steven.”.

-Belly mentions that Conrad “went to second [base]” with the girl he was dating last summer.

-Taylor brings a tiny bikini and begins to change into it. She comments that Belly’s breasts have gotten larger and that she should wear one of her bikinis instead of the tankini she was wearing.

Ch. 17

-Jeremiah admits to kissing Taylor. Jeremiah and Belly then have a conversation about who their first kisses were and if they were good kissers or not.

Ch. 18

-Belly tells Taylor that the boys only see her as a sister. Taylor retorts with “Well, maybe if you showed a little cleave…”

Ch. 20

-While playing would you rather, Steven asks Belly if she would rather eat mayo every day or be flat-chested for the rest of her life. She throws sand at him. He calls her a pain in the a**.

Ch. 21

-Conrad, Jeremiah, and a neighbor are sitting by the pool drinking a beer. The neighbor offers his to Belly.

-The neighbor admits to Belly that his ex was only 15, he was 18.

-Belly is invited to the neighbors' bonfire/ party. When they first arrive, she sees a huge keg. Conrad tells her not to drink.

-A girl at the bonfire gets mad and calls Belly a skank.

-Belly is tempted to give Conrad “the finger”.

-Belly’s friend tells her that all the boys at school wouldn’t notice her eyes because they'd be too “busy looking at (her) chest”.

Ch. 23

-Belly invited Cam (a boy she met at the bonfire) over to the house when she knew no one else would be home.

-Cam invites Belly to a party, Jeremiah and Conrad make fun of Belly and jokingly say that the host sells crystal meth from his trunk. They later admit it’s not true, and decide to go to the party too, to watch Belly.

-Belly debates with herself on whether she should have alcohol at a party, and she decides against it.

-Conrad gets “wasted” at the party and begins yelling at another guy; they are close to fighting when Belly steps between them. When they’re leaving, the guy calls Conrad a “douche”.

-Jeremiah tells Conrad, “Don’t let Mom see you like this (drunk).”

Ch. 24

SPOILERS

-Cam invites Belly to the drive-in. “He asked me to go to the drive-in. I said yes. Right away, I worried, though—did going to the drive-in mean we were going to have to make out? Like, crazy make out, steamed windows, and seats all the way back? Because that was what people did at the drive-in. There were the families, and then there were the hot and heavy couples toward the back of the lot”.

-Cam and Belly kiss when he drops her off at home.

Ch. 26

-Conrad tells Belly that his parent are getting a divorce. The three of them discuss it, saying,” ’They were in love,’ Jeremiah told me. ‘I don’t really know what happened. 'Dad’s a d**k. That’s what happened,’ Conrad said, getting up.”.

Ch. 27

-Belly thinks about how different and considerate Cam is of her, mentioning that she usually sees guys behaving differently towards girls. She stated that she “caught Jeremiah with a girl on the beach, right outside of the house. They were frantic, like if they hadn’t been wearing clothes, they’d already have been having s*x”.

-Cam comes over for dinner with Belly’s family when her mother states, “‘Belly’s allowed to kiss.’ Then she pointed her fork at Cam. ‘But that’s it.’…’ Belly, I’m kidding. You know I’m open to you exploring yourself,’ my mother said, taking a long sip of chardonnay.”

Ch. 28

-“'Truth or dare?' Taylor asked Conrad. 'I’m not playing,' he said. Taylor pouted. 'Don’t be so gay,' she said. Jeremiah said, 'You shouldn’t use the word ‘gay’ like that.' Taylor opened her mouth and closed it. Then she said, 'I didn’t mean anything by it, Jeremy.'".

-Taylor initiates a game of truth or dare, “Steven rolled his eyes. 'Truth.' Taylor’s eyes lit up. 'Okay. How far did you go with Claire Cho?'…' Third [base],' he said at last. I relaxed back into the couch. Third base. Wow. Interesting. My brother had been to third base. Weird. Gross.”.

-Steven asks Taylor a truth question in response, asking “'who in the room she would kiss', she jokingly picks her friend, Belly. To which the boys say, If you’re telling the truth, then kiss her now. "Taylor broke in quickly. She said, 'I picked truth, not dare. That’s why we’re not kissing right now.' 'We’re not kissing right now because I don’t want to kiss you,' I told her."

SPOILERS

-Jeremiah is dared to kiss someone in the room, he picks Belly: “Then he leaned over to me and said, 'Ready?' and before I could answer, he kissed me right on the lips. His mouth was a little bit open, but it wasn’t a French kiss or anything. I tried to push him off, but he kept on kissing me, for a few more seconds”.

-Belly catches Steven and Taylor on the beach, kissing. Steven tells Belly to "just freakin’ calm down. You’re too old for your temper tantrums.” Her response is “go to hell”. Taylor follows her, “apologizing”. “'Please don’t be mad, Belly. I want things to stay the same with us forever,' Taylor said, brown eyes brimming with tears. What she really meant was, I want you to stay the same forever while I grow bigger breasts and quit violin and kiss your brother.'" Belly states that she’s surprised Taylor is acting so “slutty”.

Ch. 32

-Belly tries to get Cam to go skinny dipping in the ocean, he initially agrees, but then backs out, concerned that someone/Belly’s mom, might see them.

Ch. 33

-Belly tells Jeremiah that she likes Cam because he’s different. You mean he’s “not a d**k like Conrad?”

Ch. 34

-Belly’s mom tells Susannah that “Conrad’s been behaving like a little s**t” for leaving beer bottles all over the deck outside for her to clean up.

Ch. 35

SPOILERS

-Cam and Belly kiss in the driveway.

Ch. 37

-In a memory from when Belly was 11, Steven sings “Happy birthday, butthead,” to her. He dumps sand on her lap, a sand crab crawls on her lap, and she gets scared.

Ch. 39

-Conrad brings a girl over, while they’re all watching a movie, she whispers something in his ear, and they leave. “As soon as they were gone, I hissed, 'They’re so disgusting. They probably went upstairs to go at it.' 'Go at it? Who says ‘go at it’?' Cam said, bemused.”.

Ch. 40

-Jeremiah tells Belly that his dad likes his brother better than him, “It’s true. I don’t really care anyway. I think he’s a d**k,” Jeremiah said.

Ch. 41

SPOILERS

-Conrad tells Belly to get her “head out of her a**”. Belly counters saying, “You’ve been an a** all summer. All you think about is yourself. So your parents are getting divorced! So what? People’s parents get divorced. It’s not an excuse to treat people like crap!”.

-Jeremiah sees the two of them fighting and goes out to stop it. He then gets mad at Conrad as well, saying, “We’ve been leaving you alone. We’ve left you alone this whole summer, getting drunk and sulking like a little kid. You’re supposed to be the older one, right? The big brother? Act like it, dumba**. Freaking man up and handle your business.”. They begin to fist fight and wrestle, breaking a glass and leaving blood in the sand.

-Belly compares watching their fight to when she went to church one time: “I was just standing there on the periphery, bearing witness to it all. It was like the time I went to church with Taylor, and everyone else knew all the words to the songs, but I didn’t. They lifted their arms in the air and swayed and knew every word by heart, and I felt like an intruder.”

-Belly’s mother tells her that Susannah’s cancer came back, and it’s spread to her liver.

Ch. 43

-Belly goes to Jeremiah’s room to apologize, and they both cry for a long time until they fall asleep on his bed, on top of the comforter.

SPOILERS

-Belly kisses Conrad on the beach.

Ch. 46

SPOILERS

-Conrad comes to meet Belly in the middle of the night. She waits for her mom to be asleep and sneaks down the stairs. She mentions that she won’t leave a note, but she’ll call in the morning when her mom wonders where she went.

Language: God***n, a**hole, s**t, d**n, a**, d**k