The Summer I Turned Pretty is a magnetic and thrilling teen drama that perfectly encapsulates the feelings of first love—the desire, the longing, the heartbreak—set during the magical summer months.
But then reality sets in as Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) find out that their mother, Susannah (Rachel Blanchard), is sick with cancer. The news devastates everyone, including family friends Belly (Lola Tung), Steven (Sean Kaufman), and Laurel (Jackie Chung), the latter of whom knew about the sickness but was following her best friend’s lead and keeping it a secret from the kids so that they could have one final perfect summer.
Conrad and Jeremiah aren’t ready to let their mom go, so they convince her to enroll in a clinical trial, believing that it will be her saving grace. Susannah’s survival is what everyone wants, but life doesn’t always go as planned, and cancer is ruthless and unforgiving.
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Much of the first season has followed the book—a novel of the same name by Jenny Han—pretty closely, but it’s unclear if The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 TV adaptation will also take that approach or if Susannah will get a new lease on life following the trial.
If it does mirror the books, unfortunately, that’s not good news for Susannah’s future.
For those who haven’t read the novels, she dies between The Summer I Turned Pretty and It’s Not Summer Without You, the second installment in the book series.
Given that she’s featured in the trailer for the second season of the Amazon Prime Video drama, there are a couple of ways this can pan out—either she will be alive once the season commences and everyone will get to spend some time with her before her death, she beat cancer thanks to the trial, or the scenes are flashbacks to “better” days when she was alive.
The Summer I Turned Pretty’s sophomore season will premiere its first three episodes on Friday, July 14, 2023, with new episodes released weekly, commencing with the season finale on Friday, August 18, 2023.