Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

I'm going to start this review with a story that shows just how much I wanted this book:

It’s December 22, and I’m finally buying my mom’s Christmas gift. I walk into Barnes and Noble, and there are 10 times more people in here than there usually are.

I go up the escalator, straight to the YA section, even though I’m not allowed to buy anything for myself. My mom says I can’t buy anything for myself in case someone buys me it for Christmas. I think this is a ridiculous restriction; I could just buy things that aren’t on my wishlist. But nooooo, I can’t do that.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt to see if some of the books released on the 23^rd were put out today.

I walk over to the larger side of the YA section, looking for the ‘S’s, hoping to find Cracked Up to Be. And behold! There are three copies of it sitting there!

I must have it.

I grab my cell phone out of my pocket and call my house.

“Hi [insert my real name here].”

“Can I get one book?” I ask my mom.

“No.”

“Please? I really really want it!”

“Which book?

“Cracked Up to Be.”

“No.”

“But I really really want it! PLEASE!”

“No, I told you--.”

“PLEASE!”

She sighs. “I’ll give it to you when you get home then.”

“YAY BYE!”

I hang up the phone and resist the urge to happy dance. There are too many people around for me to do that.

When I get home, present in hand, Cracked Up to Be is sitting on the kitchen table, calling my name. I grab it from the table and run to my room, eager to read the book. I put down my mom’s present, still in the B&N bag, sit on my bed, and begin reading Cracked Up to Be.

And now, the description (from B&N):

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.

And now the review:

As you can tell from my story, I really really wanted this book and had super high expectations. All the reviews I read were nothing short of glowing, which only raised my expectations. But I'm happy to report that my expectations were met and maybe even exceeded.

This book was ZOMG AMAZING. When I finished it, I was so happy because it was so good. (I even tweeted about it! Click here.) The plot was so exciting, in a calm sort of way. Yeah, that kind of made no sense. Allow me to (attempt to) explain. There's the Horrible Thing That Happened that made Parker all sarcastic and bitter and mad, but the Horrible Thing That Happened isn't revealed until the very end. But throughout the book, Parker has flashbacks to the Horrible Thing That Happened, revealing that story pieces at a time. It's a slow buildup, but it brings a lot of anxiety. I wanted to know what the Horrible Thing That Happened was so bad that I couldn't put the book down, even though I was really hungry when I was reading this and wanted food. There was so much buildup to the Big Reveal and I was guessing the whole time. And when the Horrible Thing That Happened was revealed, I was so shocked. Not because I was wrong about it (I was wrong), but because it actually wasn't anticlimactic! I was kind of expecting it to be anticlimactic because of all the buildup, but it wasn't, which I really appreciated.

I must talk about Parker. Parker was AWESOME. She was so developed and had so many issues that she's one of the most believable characters I've read about in a while. I loved how she mentioned things from when she was still "perfect" and how they crazy they made her. You can definitely see the change the Horrible Thing That Happened brought, and that change was completely believable.

A short summary of this long review: This book is amazing. Read it.

9.5/10