Cracked Up To Be

by Courtney Summers

Summary: Parker Fadley has it all-head cheerleader, honor roll student, Winter Ball Queen, perfect boyfriend, Chris. Then at a wild "school's out" party, she catches her friend Jessica's boyfriend kissing another girl and tells Jessica, who retaliates by hooking up with an older guy who crashed the party. The next day Jessica is missing, and Parker, suspecting that she could have done something to help her, nosedives into a downward spiral, drinking heavily, and attempting suicide in a motel room. All of this is revealed in flashback as Parker begins her senior year at her Catholic high school. She cuts class, goes to school drunk, ignores assignments, and goes out of her way to make everyone leave her alone. New guy Jake, intrigued by her self-destructive determination to be ostracized, persists in trying to get inside her head. The problem is that what's inside Parker's head is a fear she can't even admit to herself—that she knows what happened to Jessica and could have stopped it.

My Thoughts: This was a pretty quick easy read for me. I liked the character of Parker and the whole time I was wondering what exactly her secret was. Why was she acting like such a jerk to everyone even when people tried to be nice and help her out? Why did she go from being popular to this socially outcast person? It wasn't exactly what I was expecting which is good because it threw me for a loop and I don't like to know what is going to happen. I especially felt myself drawn to the character of Jake (does it help that my boyfriend's name is Jake, lol). He seemed like a really nice sweet caring guy and at first Parker was shutting his attempts at going on a date with her down, and I just wanted to them get together already. Overall, this was a good book, and worth reading. Courtney has another book coming out which is called Some Girls Are, so I will be reading that too!