Thursday, July 26, 2012

Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers

I just wanted to say that Cracked Up to Be is perfectly sad and sadly perfect. (Although I'm not sure why being perfect would be sad. Parker Fadley knows though.) 5 out of 5 stars.
Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers
5 out of 5 stars
Out. Buy it. Change your life.
Summary from Goodreads: 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 conselors 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.

Cracked Up To Be was the exact opposite of what I expected. It's about a girl with issues, and the girl is just trying push everyone away. She's trying to remember this huge mistake she made, even when everyone else has forgotten about it or gotten over it. She's sinking into herself, into this huge hole that replays that one night over and over again. This girl, Parker, just wants to be alone, but no one will let her be.

I didn't hate Parker like some people did. In the beginning, I just couldn't understand why she acted the way she did. I was a little confused by why she was so cold, but as the story kept on going, I started to understand. Parker Fadley is not easy to like, but you can't help loving her. I wanted to scream at her at times, but I couldn't. It was like she was this fragile thing underneath her facade. I felt like she was far away and I couldn't reach her, just like everyone else she knew did.

When I finally figured out why Parker is so broken, I started crying. I normally don't cry when I read books, but I couldn't help it. Parker's mermory is so horrible; I can't imagine having to live through it. Parker gives you the memory in bits and pieces, but that doesn't stop the force of it. I couldn't believe how terrible it was. Well, actually, I could, but it was still really shocking. I mean, from the way Parker acted after, it wasn't hard to believe the truth.

I really hated the ending. I hated how unhappy it was. I guess that's the way it was supposed to be. Parker made this huge mistake. She kept on pushing people away. She has to pay the consequences after. I hated how it ended up that way, with all the happiness a little too far away from her grasp. It made me sad how a sad book ended in a sad ending. But it makes you cry. I haven't written a review in a long time, but Cracked Up to Be made me start writing one. It also made me want to be a little nicer and a little better. It changes you. That's the true beauty of Cracked Up to Be. No matter how much you want to stop thinking about it and just try to stay the same, you can't. You have to change.

I guess that's the way Courtney Summers meant it to be.

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