Two young adult shows have come out that claim to depict the feeling of summer away from home. One consists of Cousin’s beach where there is a love triangle, fear of cancer, and heartbreak. The other consists of a Sterling Point Island in Canada, with another love triangle, undiscovered secrets, and again heartbreak. Due to the fact that one of these shows has only released one season, while the other has three and an upcoming movie, I will only be focusing on the first season of both shows, going through the main plot points, characters, and drama, without giving too many spoilers!
The Summer I Turned Pretty (Show): 2022-2025
The Summer I Turned Pretty follows Isabelle (Belly) Conklin and her summer life at her mom’s best friend’s beach house in Cousins Beach, MA. She has grown up with Susana, Conrad, and Jeremiah Fisher, but now, after she’s grown, she seems to have caught the eye of both the Fisher boys as they battle for her attention. The first season follows the first book, while adding some plot points to give the audience more drama. Belly has always had a crush on Conrad and this was the summer where she was sure that they were going to get together. However, fate had other plans and Conrad starts dating Nicole and Susana tells Belly that she wants to see her in a white dress before she loses her battle to cancer. This requires Belly to practice for the Deb Ball. Which she invites Jeremiah to as her male escort. After a summer full of drama, Jeremiah finds out that his mom has cancer again and leaves Belly alone at the dance. Conrad steps in and they have a perfect dance together. The season ends with the two of them dating and promising to see each other during Conrad’s last year of high school.Â
Sterling Point:Â 2026-current
Annie Jacobson and her twin brother Connor find out that their estranged mother’s father has passed away, leaving both of them a share of Sterling Point Island in Canada. However, their adoptive father doesn’t want the twins knowing anything about their mother’s side of the family. Annie decides to go behind her father’s back and finds the letter that her grandfather left for her and decides to leave for Sterling Point. Once arriving she meets her new friends; Ellis, Oona, Rory, Maple, and Sully. They are very welcoming, but to ensure that she gets answers, Annie neglects to tell them that she is related to Gorden (owner of the island and her grandfather). As she goes back to her grandfather’s cabin after a long day, she runs into Romona, her secret sister. The rest of the show follows uncovering more family secrets while also learning how to live for yourself. With the end of the first season showing Romona going back to New York with Connor and Annie staying in Sterling Point, both on a quest to truly connect with their families that they have been separated from for so long.Â
SimilaritiesÂ
- Both seasons are set in the summer seasonÂ
- There is romantic drama
- Families secrets are kept from the teens of the showÂ
- There is some LGBTQ+ representation form bothÂ
Differences
- Summer I Turned Pretty is mainly focused on romance and a love triangleÂ
- Sterling Point has romance but is more centrally focused on family historyÂ
- Belly has always known Cousin’s Beach while Annie has never been anywhere but New YorkÂ
- Summer I Turned Pretty brings cancer into view when Susana character has her cancer reoccurÂ
- Sterling Point focuses on queer love and makes it one of the central points and conflict that needs to resolved
- Summer I Turned Pretty was a book first
My Personal FavoriteÂ
There will always be a place in my heart for The Summer I Turned Pretty, however, I enjoyed watching Sterling Point more than I did watching The Summer I Turned Pretty. While it was nice to see a screen adaptation of a book that I listened to on log drives, I believe that the originality of Sterling Point was more engaging. Due to the fact that there was no book or story that led to this show being created, it was more of a mystery than just an adaptation. Another great part of this show was that the male love interests, Rory and Ellis, had no major red flags. It showed that there can be two good choices and that someone isn’t forced to pick one side because of a terrible and awful thing that someone did. I do believe that The Summer I Turned Pretty had very toxic male love interests, therefore it was refreshing to see two characters that had almost nothing wrong with them. I also liked the queer representation more from Sterling Point. Jeremiah was mentioned to be bisexual in the first season of The Summer I Turned Pretty, however, besides a make out scene, this was not expired anymore. Sterling Point, makes the queer relationship a major part of the story and gets you attached to the slow-burn. While it does end in a negative light, the director did a great job at making sure that the audience could understand both sides of the story, making it more heartbreaking when they did break up. However, Sterling Point was just recently renewed for a second season, meaning they have complete free rein to make their story perfect for those who are so intrigued in the storyline.Â