CRACKED UP TO BE
By Courtney Summers
2009
214 Pages
From Back Cover:
When "Perfect" Parker Fadley starts drinking at school and failing her classes, all of St. Peter's High goes on alert. How has the cheer leading 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 is a nice guy falling in love with her and he's making her feel things again when she'd rather not feel anything at all. Nobody would have guessed she'd turn out like this. But nobody know the truth. Something horrible has happened, and it just might be here fault.
My Thoughts:
Wow! Parker Fadley is hard to love. Throughout the story Parker does her very best to push everyone who tries to care about her away. She is verbally and emotionally mean to her friends and family. She takes every chance they give her, crumples it up and throws it back in their faces. Parker is in full self destruct mode and we are witnessing the end of a good girl gone bad. What has brought Parker to this place? Chapter by chapter, it's slowly pieced together. We see the old Parker through a series of flashbacks-which brings us one horrible night that tears Parker's life apart. What happened? Courtney Summers is an incredible storyteller. I found Parker completely unlikeable and her actions left me speechless YET I flew through the pages determined to find answers. The ending left me numb. Although I will never be a Parker Fadley fan I immediately went out and bought two more Courtney Summers books.
Reader be warned this book contains language, drinking, sex and violence.
