I’ll be honest, I only watched The Summer I Turned Pretty because it featured a Taylor’s Version song. However, I became invested and saw it through to the end once I started watching because it’s a fun show. The Summer I Turned Pretty was a light show to counterbalance a lot of my heavier summer binges (The Boys & Stranger Things). I would even credit it with jump-starting my journey into BookTok.
The question I am investigating here, after finishing the show and the trilogy of books: which is better? I say, you will love the show or love the books, but you can’t have both.
⚠️ Spoiler Warning ⚠️
I am going to allude to who Belly ends up with in the end. So if you want to find out for yourself choose your adventure, books or TV, and then come back. 🙂
Biggest Differences
When I started the second book, I discovered the whole debutante plot line in the show was never in the books. I think it was more realistic for a high schooler to be going to a debutante ball than a sophomore in college planning a wedding… but if there is going to be a season 2 on Prime, they are going to have to continue building on the alternative plot line. I expected season 1 to be like the first book, so avoid my confusion and expect them to be two different ideas with the same characters.
Isabel Conklin
Isabel, Belly, grows a lot throughout the trilogy, and the show does not cover any of it. This is part of the reason her flings in the show don’t make sense. Belly moves gradually through phases in the books, but either way, her interest in both brothers was inappropriate. I will say in both versions of The Summer I Turned Pretty, Belly acts like her age. She reminded me a lot of how I was in high school, a hopeless romantic and nostalgic for simpler times.
Conrad Fisher
Conrad is an asshole in both the show and the books. However, I became jaded against the book version after watching the show. Jenny Han, the author, does a better job of investigating why Conrad is the way he is through both first-person perspective and insight from Belly’s experiences. Conrad’s aloof character repels the viewer, while Jeremiah playfully draws the viewer in, making the show feel unbalanced. In the books, readers understand why Conrad is acting out, even if it is unjustified.
Jeremiah Fisher
Jere is even more loveable in the books versus the show, and it is almost too much. Belly being hung up on Conrad when she could have had Jeremiah the whole time made me frustrated. Usually, a girl will get past her “bad boys phase” but not in Belly’s case. At least in the books, we get more of Jere’s perspective on it.
Conclusions
I liked the books better. The show was too vague about the complexities of loving a childhood friend. However, in general, Han did not give Belly a chance to heal from her breakup with Conrad. It is more entertaining to watch her jump into a relationship with Jeremiah while still having feelings for Conrad than let her take a real break from the Fisher boys. If she had taken a break, maybe Jeremiah would have had a real shot. Finally, in the show, summer is rushed through when the whole point of reading/watching is to extend your summer! If you are missing summer, read the books.
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