Review: The Summer I Turned Pretty (Spoiler-Free)

Okay so. Here's the thing. This book is terrible. Like so bad. It's problematic, has no plot, and the characters are all one-dimensional and bratty.

However.

I was still highly entertained. I don't even know how, but I'm going to have to assume Jenny Han just possesses magic. This book was nothing in comparison to the masterpiece that is the To All the Boys trilogy, but the easy to read writing style and fun summer aesthetic of this book really just kept me flipping the pages. It was honestly kinda fun to roll my eyes and yell at the characters. It's one of those cases where it's so bad it's good. Like The Kissing Booth or After (the movies, I've never read the books).

I was especially amused by the fact that every character in this book is fine and at least close to a decent person except the protagonist and obviously endgame love interest. So, you know what, maybe in some twisted way they really are meant for each other.

There is absolutely no reason why I should want to continue with this series, but I somehow do. It was oddly charming in a concerning way. I've done my best to explain myself at this point, but the bottom line is: Do I recommend this book? Absolutely not. But did I kind of like reading it and will also read the sequels? Of course.