Justine's Thoughts: Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers

Cracked Up To Be
By Courtney Summers

Pages:

214

Book Description:

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 counsellors 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 to 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.

A quote:

...there’s no such thing as a decent human being. It’s just an illusion.
And when it’s gone, it’s really gone.

Any thoughts:

This novel was fast-paced, written in a style that would make you want to continue reading and never stop. And I really, really loved it.

At first, I thought there was going to be a “before” and an “after”, explaining how Parker’s life fell apart. I was wrong. It takes place after the whole event happened, but at certain times in the novel, a retelling of what occurred will pop out...because Parker will never forget it, and the battle between her and her memories clearly show. No one knows why she’s like this, including the reader. It’s not till the very end when you get the upsetting truth. Sure, throughout the novel I was guessing why she had become like this and I’ve had some interesting guesses, however none of them were right. That’s one of the reasons why this novel is so good -- it’ll keep you intrigued.

I also wasn’t aware of the foul language that was used. But that’s what makes it realistic. Courtney Summers writes this novel with a teenage voice, exactly how a teenager would respond to certain things, which goes to say that you can relate with Parker. Parker has always wanted everything to be perfect, the way she wants everything to be. And she does, she has. But that leads to a problem as she creates her own downfall and everything falls apart from there. The message being sent out is that not everything perfect is cracked up to be which is so powerful that I will keep this book in my head for the next few days.