**SPOILER ALERT: If you have not watched Season 2 of The Summer I Turned Pretty or read book two (It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han) in the series, this will spoil them for you. Please read and watch before reading. You have been warned!
To start, I want to remind you that I think the Amazon Prime adaption of these books is fire! And I am fully #TeamJeremiah. While I do not try to let that skew my thoughts, I obviously feel a certain way. Now we may continue.
I feel like book two was instantly significantly more aligned with the books than season one was with the first book. The first book really didn’t give me much. I felt like the show had to adapt and build characters that didn’t even get a lot of time in the book. I think Conrad spoke once at the end of the book and Jeremiah wasn’t really in it all that much. Also, Belly was very whiney.
With that being said, Belly is still kind of whiney, but I feel like maybe she grew up a bit with the loss of Susannah. There were a lot of scenes that were very similar in the books and to the show. We had Jeremiah and Belly looking for Conrad, finding him at Cousins, the selling of the house debacle, love drama, and parties. But the details in those stories were different a lot of big ways. The first being the emotions involved. In the books, I felt like there wasn’t much build up to these relationships. Nothing from Conrad and then bam, they are together. Nothing from Jeremiah and then bam, they are making out in cars. A huge difference was that Aunt Julia and Skye were not in the books. I was a bit disappointed in that because I love Skye! They are amazing. So the overall characters themselves were much better in the tv show for me.
The next biggest difference I noticed is that so far in these books, and more so in book two, is that Belly isn’t making the decisions. There is a lot of talk between the boys about who should be with Belly, who gets Belly, who is going to step down and allow the other person to be with Belly. Why is Belly not part of these conversations. Book Belly kind of just goes with Jeremiah because Conrad refuses her. There is no active choice in the book for her. But in the show, Belly chooses Jeremiah. She speaks to Conrad and she chooses that he is not the right choice for her and makes an active decision for Jeremiah. This makes me curious if Jenny Han and the writers will have book three be different. I know how this story ends and I just don’t see this going that direction based on the characters that have been developed in book three. More on that later though.
Overall the general plot line of season two was in line with the book. I just still think the tv show gives us more. I felt way stronger about the characters in the show than I do in the book.
Book me is #TeamNobody. They are all a bit annoying to me in the book.
TV Show… #TeamJeremiah.
Now let’s see how I feel after Season three. But first let’s get these writers a good deal so they can come off strike!
