It's Not Summer Without You Themes

Coming of Age

The book is a traditional coming of age story in many ways with Belly being the primary example of the theme. Belly is facing the end of her childhood which is punctuated by the death of a close family friend, Susannah, and breaking up with her childhood crush, Conrad. To make matters worse, Belly is facing the fact that she will never again spend an entire summer at the beach house at Cousins, a tradition she has participated in for her whole life. Belly doesn't want to let things change in order to grow and mature, and she seeks ways to avoid the changes rather than accepting them. Belly has always embraced the summers at the beach house. She admits that the moment she's there she doesn't miss the parties and other summer events Taylor talks about later in the year. When Belly returns to the...