Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers

Main Characters: Parker, Chris, Jake, Becky

Summary:

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?

When “Perfect” Parker Fadley starts drinking at school and failing her classes, all of St. Peter’s High goes on alert. How has the cheerleading captain, girlfriend of the most popular guy in school, consummate teacher’s pet, and future valedictorian fallen so far from grace?

Parker doesn’t want to talk about it. She’d just like to be left alone, to disappear, to be ignored. But her parents have placed her on suicide watch and her counselors are demanding the truth. Worse, there’s a nice guy falling in love with her and he’s making her feel things again when she’d really rather not be feeling anything at all.

Nobody would have guessed she’d turn out like this. But nobody knows the truth.

Something horrible has happened, and it just might be her fault.

Anna’s Thoughts:

Parker Fadley is irritating, completely and utterly her own worst enemy in every possible way, and yet for some reason I absolutely loved her. I wanted to smack her a lot, but I loved her. I think it takes a lot of effort to make a character as imperfect as Parker and turn her into someone that readers can still connect to and care about. In high school I never faced any of the problems that Parker did, and somehow I can still connect to what she’s feeling, and that is something to me that is just amazing. It wasn’t just Parker either, I loved all of the characters, even Becky, and I felt bad for all of them – for their individual secrets, who their hearts were with, and what they were willing or not willing to settle for.

It’s not really a secret that I don’t read very much contemporary fiction, YA or not, and that’s usually because it either ends up bad, too happy (yes, there is a such thing), or just leaves you hanging. With Cracked Up To Be we’re left hanging just a little but not so much that I want to fly into a rage, it ties up all the loose ends nicely. Personally, I think I just have a thing for series’. I wish I knew what happened to Parker after the book ends, I wish I knew how she ended up with her boy-issues, but life is unpredictable for the most part so it’s fitting that you’re kind of left wondering and hoping for Parker to pull through.

The only thing that deterred me from absolutely loving Cracked Up To Be was the transition from when Parker was by herself to when she was with someone, or thinking about past events. For the most part the flashbacks are very easy to know because they’re all in italics. Sometimes though someone would start talking to Parker, or they’d sneak into the scene and I would be completely oblivious to them until they’re said to be doing something and all I can think of is ‘Wait, where did they come from?’ – and be forced to go back and see what I missed. And a few times, there was nothing, the other character just wasn’t properly introduced into the scene in a way that said HEY HERE I AM!

Overall though I really really did love Cracked Up To Be, it highly restored my faith in contemporary fiction. Courtney – despite some scenes running together – really knows how to tell a captivating story and I cannot wait for more by her!

Cracked Up To Be is Courtney Summers first novel. Her second novel, Some Girls Are is out in January 2010.