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ninetalevixen 's review for:
The Summer I Turned Pretty
by Jenny Han
2.5 stars.
This started off as a light, domestic, cute summer-YA-romance; if I'd read it a few years ago (though not right when it came out, because I didn't like romance then) I think I could've really enjoyed it. But reading it now, the aggressive heteronormativity and girl-on-girl hate exhausts me, as do all the "games" the characters play. Again, my early-teens self could probably relate a lot more than I do now, so it's probably partly just a mismatch between this book and me as the reader. (Another example: I, personally, just can't put aside my inexplicable biases against a love interest named Conrad; I don't know why I don't like his name, I've never even known a Conrad IRL and I can't think of any fictional name twins, but I'm just not into it.)
Honestly though, these aren't healthy relationships portrayed here. It's the kind of thing that mainstream media tends to romanticize, so I'm not condemning this book in particular, but I really couldn't get past the issues of consent and manipulation.
Ironically, I had been on the fence about picking up the second book, but the included excerpt made me not want to read it. So.
content warnings:
rep:
This started off as a light, domestic, cute summer-YA-romance; if I'd read it a few years ago (though not right when it came out, because I didn't like romance then) I think I could've really enjoyed it. But reading it now, the aggressive heteronormativity and girl-on-girl hate exhausts me, as do all the "games" the characters play. Again, my early-teens self could probably relate a lot more than I do now, so it's probably partly just a mismatch between this book and me as the reader. (Another example: I, personally, just can't put aside my inexplicable biases against a love interest named Conrad; I don't know why I don't like his name, I've never even known a Conrad IRL and I can't think of any fictional name twins, but I'm just not into it.)
Honestly though, these aren't healthy relationships portrayed here. It's the kind of thing that mainstream media tends to romanticize, so I'm not condemning this book in particular, but I really couldn't get past the issues of consent and manipulation.
Ironically, I had been on the fence about picking up the second book, but the included excerpt made me not want to read it. So.
content warnings:
Spoiler
terminally ill secondary character (breast cancer), marijuana use, ableist language (r-word), casual homophobic language, non-consensual kiss (while playing Truth or Dare)rep: