The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer, #1)

by Jenny Han

Counting the days until summer again. For me, it was almost like winter didn’t count. Summer was what mattered. My whole life was measured in summers.

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.

Sometimes it’s like people are a million times more beautiful to you in your mind. It’s like you see them through a special lens—but maybe if it’s how you see them, that’s how they really are. It’s like the whole tree falling in the forest thing.

Victory is a thousand times sweeter when you’re the underdog.

For me there was—is—nothing better than walking on the beach late at night. It feels like you could walk forever, like the whole night is yours and so is the ocean. When you walk on the beach at night, you can say things you can’t say in real life. In the dark you can feel really close to a person. You can say whatever you want.

“Best friends are important. They’re the closest thing to a sister you’ll ever have,”

It’s hard to throw away history. It was like you were throwing away a part of yourself.

I thought to myself, I will love this boy forever.

It didn’t matter what he said or did, I’d never let him go.

I refuse to put any more poison into my body or spend any more time in hospitals. This is where I want to be. With the people who matter most to me.

“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) / it’s always ourselves we find in the sea.”

Everything that happened this past summer, and every summer before it, has all led up to this.