YMMV / The Summer I Turned Pretty

The TV series

• Les Yay: Laurel and Beck. From always being there for each other to practically raising their kids together in the summer where the husbands, per Belly's narration, 'don't belong'. Laurel also doesn't like Beck's husband, and according to Belly wasn't particularly upset over her marriage ending, with her being the one initiating the divorce. Beck also always refers to Belly as 'our girl' to Laurel.
• Ron the Death Eater: Belly/Conrad shippers treat Jeremiah like this due to him being the competition for Belly's affections. They claim he is abusive and manipulative and that his every move is a calculated effort to harm Conrad or Belly, while nothing in canon supports this.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Following the release of the first season in 2022, fans who prefer Belly with either brother have gone to battle hard. It's an odd one, as Belly/Conrad is vastly more popular than Belly/Jeremiah, but the former's shippers seem enraged that anyone would like Belly/Jeremiah and so spend a lot of time trashing that pairing. It gets ugly.
• Spiritual Successor: The show has been likened to Felicity because of its calm, earnest tone and the intense quiet nature of the heroine protagonists. In addition, because of both series' focus on a love triangle between a moody guy and a nice guy, of course with variations on the theme.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Susannah, significantly in Season 2, for telling Belly as a kid that she is 'destined for one of [Susannah's] boys'. With the way Belly idolises Susannah, and the latter's death, putting that on Belly might have caused a very uncomfortable situation for not only Belly, but her two sons, who become each other's competitors for Belly's affections, which in turn shakes the entire dynamic of the found family they've created, especially at a time when they should be able to lean on each other for support, which is exemplified by Jeremiah being left all alone in his grief after Susannah dies. Susannah also wanted her sons to be happy always, which leaves Jeremiah to put on a cheerful facade (also caused by his parents' favouritism of his older brother) and suffer alone, while Conrad doesn't let anyone help him with his problems and shuts people out.

The book series

• Base-Breaking Character: Readers either love Belly for her flawed personality or can't utterly stand her for her childish immaturity. (This gets lampshaded in the books as well, including Belly herself.) Some readers actually enjoy this aspect of her, as they feel it makes her feel like a real teenager. However, other readers find her highly annoying and don't understand why Conrad and Jeremiah are in a Love Triangle over her.
• Jerkass Woobie: Adam. He's pretty distant with his sons and favors Conrad over Jeremiah and emotionally mistreated the latter. Not to mention him trying to sell the Summer House right after Susannah's death is cruel; not just to his grieving sons but Laurel and her kids too. (As they spent every summer there with Susannah for years and Susannah herself declared it as their home too.) He even bluntly says Laurel and her family have no right over the house, openly dismissing Susannah having said otherwise and their time spent with her. When he says this, it sends Laurel into full Tranquil Fury and to give him a harsh tell-off. However, he's such a Jerkass at this point partly due to grief over Susannah's death and finally accepting how awful he treated her during their marriage. He admits he wants to sell the Summer House because it holds too much of Susannah's memory and he can't cope with his guilt, breaking down in tears as Laurel comforts him.