Cracked Up to Be

Courtney Summers is a queen of young adult realistic fiction. There’s really no denying that. Her prose is powerful and her ability to make readers root for an extremely unlikable female protagonist is incomparable. Summers’ debut, Cracked Up to Be is another strong novel that really reaffirms my belief in this author’s writing. It wasn’t a perfect read for me, but it came fairly close.

As far as comparing Summers’ other novels, Cracked Up to Be is probably most similar to Some Girls Are (though thankfully its plot doesn’t rely on Disappearing Parent Syndrome like the latter’s did). The protagonist in this book, Parker, is a snarky, nasty girl who’s main goal into life is to be left to her own devices. Her method of doing that? Alienate everyone she knows and drink like she’s stumbled on the last oasis in a desert. Parker’s gone from head cheerleader, most popular girl in school, to nothing, but it’s not enough for her. She won’t stop until everyone hates her and they ignore her. That’s what she wants.

The reason Parker’s behavior has taken such a self-destructive turn is kept mostly a secret until the end, revealed layer by layer in the form of flashbacks. I’m of the opinion that this stylistic choice wasn’t the best, since by the time the “big reveal” comes in the last few chapters, the reader already knows why Parker is the way she is, and it’s a bit underwhelming. (Also, by this time we’ve seen the pivotal scene play out in Parker’s memories at least five times, so it’s getting a bit redundant and overdone.)

Parker is probably the best of Summers’ four protagonists. She wasn’t stupid like Regina from Some Girls Are, and she wasn’t emotionally unavailable like Eddie and Sloane from Fall for Anything and This Is Not a Test. Rather, Parker’s issues have made her bitter and sarcastic and uninhibited. Parker’s dialogue is snappy and blunt, and even when she was being terrible to her former friends, it was hard not to laugh.

The big complaint I had with Cracked Up to Be was the way everything played out in the end. Obviously I can’t get into details because that would be a massive spoilery discussion. Basically, the story felt incomplete. I didn’t feel like Parker showed much growth as a person by the last page. In my opinion, she was essentially the same. The thing with realistic fiction is that (supposedly) the author presents a person with a problem, then shows how that character goes about dealing with that problem. Parker’s method of dealing with her problem was to be a jerk, and it’s only in the final two pages that she maybe shows a side of herself that isn’t a jerk. It wasn’t enough for me, though.

While Cracked Up to Be isn’t my favorite of Courtney Summers’ novels (that honor goes to Fall for Anything), this book is still extremely good, extremely unique, and well worth reading. Being inside Parker’s head is a different experience than one typically finds, and even if I didn’t like the way she told her story, Summers is still a powerful and talented writer.

This book hasn't been at my library and I finally got my hands on it a few days ago. It took me a little while to get into, but was still a pretty good book.
Plot: Plotwise, this book was a long the lines of Between by Jessica Warman. Trying to figure out what happened leading up to the current time. (Both girls were popular or former populars, too.) Parker gradually allows herself to recall more and more of the night her life started to go down hill. The plot was a little slow, which I didn't mind at all because even in the small scenes, something was always going on. I feel that the ending was rushed compared to how slowly the rest of the book moved. Within a few chapters you find out what really happened, they react and then it ends.

Characters: I loved Parker, she speaks my language: sarcasm. Although I'm not quite as gutsy to say some of the things she does. I still don't 100% understand why she just wanted to be left alone, but I really liked her character's back story and how she used to be "perfect" and now she's not. She's got this I-don't-a-crap-what-you-think-about-me attitude and says whatever comes to her mind. She can come off a bit rude when insisting that Jake likes her and Christopher is still in love with her.

Jake. Ah, he still likes Parker even though she hates his guts, or does she? I was disappointed they didn't get very far and I kept mentally hitting Parker for pushing him away. Maybe we'll get a sequel with more Parke? (Woo! for on-the-spot couple naming!)

Okay, so maybe it's true that Christopher is still in love with her. I don't see why they broke up, but I guess it was part of the becoming unperfect plan that Parker had in mind. I like him. If they had been together during the course of the book, I think they would have been a cute couple. Parke is so much better though. If it even exists.

Becky. Do I really need to waste time on her? Even if Parker tormented her a bit, okay a lot, I never really felt sorry for her. She was too much like a few of the attention seeking girls at my school I try to avoid.

Riley. I was really going to cry. The tears were ready to fall and I kept waiting for it to be fake. It totally crossed the line of things acceptable. Really though, Riley was just another character (even if he is a dog) that loved Parker and it's not really clear why.

Jess. I kept waiting for the story of her disappearance to be something really spectacular and different than a lot of other books, but it was pretty typical for a YA book.

Overall: I like it. I'll definitely be picking up a few more of Courtney Summers' books, but at the library; I probably won't by them. Though this book was pretty good, it was also pretty average.