Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (December 2008)
Page Count: 214
Reading Level: Ages 14-UP

Summary: Perfect Parker Fadley isn't so perfect anymore. She's quit the cheerleading squad, she's dumped her perfect boyfriend, and she's failing school. Her parents are on a constant suicide watch and her counselors think she's playing games...but what they don't know, the real reason for this whole mess, isn't something she can say out loud. It isn't even something she can say to herself. A horrible thing has happened and it just might be her fault. If she can just remove herself from everybody--be totally alone--then everything will be okay...The problem is, nobody will let her.

My review: I like the name given to the main character in the above summary. Parker does try to be perfect and it's this need to be the best in everything that acts as the catalyst to her downfall. When the perfect girl tries to 'loosen up' she goes so overboard  she looses control and her actions, especially her words, will have repercussions. The fall out from one drunken party night will begin to engulf Parker and affect those closest to her.

Written in occasional raw language (this book deals with profanity and sex) and conveyed with brutal honesty, we are privy to Parker's descent page by page. This novel is only 214 pages but every single word is utilized to show us the life of a self-destructive 17-year-old high school senior. Instead of verbalizing the word 'help' everything inside of her is a cry for attention. 

Parker's story is gripping and her closest friends are three dimensional and realistic. In my opinion I thought the climax wasn't as powerful (from the premise's promising set-up), and I felt shorted with the ending. I did like the openness of Parker's ending and I was grateful Summers didn't paint a pretty and perfect conclusion--she opted to leave us with hope and optimism that a broken Parker could be helped. Cracked Up To Be may be an eyeball-rolling, shoulder-tensing, tear-inducing (the scene with Bailey the dog-wow), and tumultuous read but it is definitely worth it. This would make a good summer read. Ultimately, this book was  something I did not want to put down and even after finishing it so much still resonated within me. Only powerful, well written novels have the ability to do all of that.

Favorite excerpt: (From page 102)

    " I look him directly in the eyes.

     "I mean, you know how it is. You chase a bottle of sleeping pills with a bottle of Jack Daniel's and life's never the same, no matter how many times you try to tell people it was an accident."

     "Is that a no?" he asks. "If you don't want to, just say so. You don't have to be such a smart-ass about everything."

     I want to laugh, but I don't. There's something unsatisfying about what just happened here. I set the paper down.

     I could have a good time if I went out with Jake. But that doesn't mean I should.

     "Are you asking me out?"

     "Yeah," he finally says. "

Rating: ++++

For fans of: Contemporary YA; By The Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead; The Tension of Opposites.

Book source: Purchased.