Wow! This book was super good but also very intense. It's very well written and I think it shows a scary side of mental illness. How this very perfect girl on the outside was very not ok on the inside and how well she hid it. It has a few sad moments and it will definitely make you think have have many emotions while reading it. This one is definitely a Top Read for this year. I will recommend this book to everyone.

Courtney summers crushed it again!
The author has a special talent in breaking readers hearts and making them question everything.
The book was spectacular, incredibly well written and left me hanging at the end of every chapter!
Loved it!!

3.5 stars

This is a republished version of Courtney Summers' (author of Sadie) first book, Cracked Up to Be. It's about Parker, the ideal, perfect high school student: captain of the cheerleading team and straight A student, relentlessly determiend to do everything right. Until she makes a mistake. and her whole perfect world comes shattering down around her. Her new goal becomes to make everyone she cares about dislike her, so that she won't have to worry about living up to their expectations again.

Parker is not a likeable character. But she is not trying to be likeable, not with her peers and family and not with the reader. She wants everyone to hate her, because she hates herself. I was equal parts frustrated by and heartbroken for Parker. It's hard to read a a book about a character who is determined to do everything possible to make everyone dislike her. Page after page after page, Parker pushes everyone away with the cruelest words possible. It made her an unsympathetic character, yet I also felt deep symapthy for her at the same time. Parker is a girl who is deeply hurt and lost, and I just wanted to figure out a way to help her!

I thought this was an interesting exploration of what goes on in the mind of a "mean girl." Most people who are being unkind have deeper issues going on within them. This story gives you a glimpse into the mind of girls like Parker, and it's a helpful insight into why mean girls do what they do.

I was frustrated by the ending of this book. It felt very abrupt! Parker was spiraling out of control, and then all of a sudden, everything is okay and she is going to get help and the end. The resolution did not feel realistic, and it all happened so fast.

I am not sure it is accurate to say that I "liked" this book, as it's not a super enjoyable book to read. But I thought it was thought-provoking, and I appreciated the insight into Parker's life and mind and the empathy it created in me.

However, Parker felt real and solid and a jagged and broken sort of way. Her dialogue was cutting and witty and timely. Watching her break down over the course of the novel was... enlightening. The snatches of flashbacks were brilliantly integrated into the story, beginning as a teaser and ending with the choppy final cut of a movie montage as everything clicks into place.

One of the things I can really appreciate is that all of the characters (except for Becky but she was this weird stand-in for a nemesis to be the butt of Parker's jokes) were likeable and genuinely good people. It gives extra dimension to Parker and the overall story. I do wish Jessie was a little more present in the story - and Evan as well; it would give the buildup more impact.

The prose has this stumbling inevitability that made it feel both painfully authentic and impossible to put down. If I hadn't had life obligations, I probably would have read this in one sitting. Again, comparing with Sadie, you can really see the growth that Summers has undergone, but she could captivate an audience even 12 years ago.

Cracked Up to Be showcases what Summers is great at as a writer: delving deep into the gritty underbelly of life as a young woman. That grit may rub some readers wrong, but her process of letting readers discover her characters through story has always been a piece that I enjoy. And because of it, every moment of characterization and story progression ultimately feels earned and worth the journey. This story is not for the faint of heart, but it was incredibly moving and painful to fall into.

There are turning points to everyone's journey, but what I love about Summers' is that she takes that point and turns it into the whole story. And even though Parker is troubled and struggling, you feel as if she's as normal as you were as a teenager and all it would've taken was that one moment to bring you on a parallel path with her. Everyday moments are humanized, choices are whittled down to fractions, and through it all you see deeply into who Parker truly is—and who she was. The characters around her—while not as deeply explored but still just as palpable—become a way to further explain her story and choices and that's not a tactic you see very often—but when done well, it can feel immersive as hell. Through it all, this story touched on so many things that ripped into my heart and made my heart twist with pain, but despite all of that, I wish there was more of it, more to how it ended...to make it feel complete.

As someone who loved Sadie I was definitely excited to read this book by the same author. Unfortunately, it was not for me. There was a lot going on when it came to school drama but I didn't find myself interested. I also wasn't interested in any of the characters.

Parker was the "perfect" girl. She was popular and at one point a cheerleader. She definitely went through some things but I never connected to her. I never felt anything for her situations. The other characters were rather bland and didn't feel like they had a lot going on when it came to development.

I would say that the plot is pretty fast paced and lot goes on but also not a lot? If that makes sense. Most of the time school drama like this just isn't for me  so in a way I'm not surprised that this plot didn't work for me but since it was written by an author I already have read I had hope for it.

Overall, this book just wasn't for me. I don't have a lot to say about it because nothing clicked for me.

When I requested this title I didn’t realize it was a re- release for an anniversary edition and that I had already read - and loved- it about 7 years ago. But since I didn’t really remember much except an art project I decided to take advantage of this copy and do a re read because I know I liked it the first time. And I know I like Courtney Stevens books.

I think this time I enjoyed the MC more because I just liked her sassiness and her total uncompromising attitude. I could respect her. She’s a really nasty piece of work and I LOVED that about her. She doesn’t just go along to get along. She challenges everyone and everything including herself.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I appreciate the opportunity of reading a revised version of the first novel of Courtney Summers. Like many others, I first "met" this author through Sadie. So it is actually pretty interesting to go back and read an earlier book. This too has a strong female protagonist. It is a bit more YA than the others, with a heavy high school setting, but it is a nice reading as well.

Two years ago when I read Courtney Summers’ novel Sadie (see my review here) I said “it’s like you’re watching a horrific accident occurring in real-time. You know that events can only worsen, but you can’t look away.” Cracked Up To Be is a lot like that, but instead the main character of Parker is the train wreck.

Parker is mean and manipulative. It takes pages to warm up to her character as Summers slowly scratches Parker’s surface and allows the reader to glimpse this actually fragile teenager. While I didn’t hate her by the end of the novel, I still wasn’t certain that I liked her. I understood her to some degree but as for “liking?” As I’ve previously mentioned in reviews, it’s not a prerequisite for liking a novel to like the main character and that’s true here.

Just as Summers slowly revealed Parker’s real character, she also reveals the actual occurrences that preceded the beginning of the book. The party that ultimately resulted in suicide attempts, rape, and a missing girl. While it’s not a psychological thriller in the respect of someone’s life physically being threatened, it is from the perspective of someone’s mental state being threatened.

Cracked Up To Be is character-driven and is about a character who will stay in your mind for a long while after the final page.

One last word. I always avoid spoilers in my reviews. There’s nothing worse than someone telling you what happens. However, something does happen in Cracked Up To Be that left me extremely upset, the crying kind of upset. As you probably know these are referred to as triggers so I am placing this spoilerish trigger below my rating. If you follow my blog, you might already know what it is. Whether the author needed it to happen in the story to make it a stronger story, I don’t know. I don’t think so.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I liked Parker. I feel like this says something about me, that I'm empathetic or super callous, or maybe both. I also feel that all books should come with a warning if the dog dies. I don't care if it's a plot point or a relevant emotional moment. I really can't go on this way.

Content warnings: Rape, suicidal attempts, a dog dies, flippant remarks about suicide/wanting to die/wanting to kill oneself if they were x person, underage drinking, brief mentions of murder, mental health/anxiety issues.

!!This is not a spoiler free review!!

I honestly should have let myself DNF this book at 30 pages.

I picked it up because I really loved Sadie by Courtney Summers, and this one popped up on Net Galley with a 5 day reading window before it would be archived. I honestly did not expect to get approved. So I read the book. And I didn’t like it.

I wasn’t aware that this book was 10 years old already, until I read the author’s note at the start of the book. And honestly, you could tell just how dated this book was by some of the language used in it.

I understand what this book was trying to do – what Parker was trying to do, but I just didn’t enjoy the way it was done, and it left me feeling rather… icky.

Parker is perfect – it’s what she strives for, and one night, she gets shitfaced drunk at her boyfriend’s party.

At this party, she’s just as horrible as always, but she’s even perfect at that, and after telling her supposed best friend, Jessie, that her boyfriend was cheating on her, Jessie goes and flirts with some college guys who crashed the party.

Jessie is raped in the woods, and then murdered. Parker witnesses a part of the rape, and because she is so horrendously drunk, she does nothing about it.

After that, she tries to kill herself because she didn’t do anything to stop the rape, and she’s living with all of this guilt. She survives the attempted suicide and then proceeds to shut everyone in her life out so that when she is ready to try again, she won’t be hurting anyone in her life because she’ll have no one.

This book touches on a lot of heavy topics. Again, I understand what this book was trying to do, I just don’t think it hit the mark for me.

I always really enjoy the writing and the characters from this author. I feel like this story was very important to hear and Courtney really has a way with words. She truly makes you feel emotion with every sentence. Since this book is not very long I dont want to give away too much with my review but I will say I very much enjoyed my experience and will continue to pick up this authors writing! I also love the rereleased cover!

Wow. This book caught me from the first page and I didn't want to put it down. I listened to Courtney Summers' Sadie as an audiobook and loved it, so I was definitely on board for whatever else she wrote.
I just couldn't stop reading this because I needed to know what happened. There's so few details of what happened and they're doled out so slowly that the reader is on the edge, waiting for more information. The best thing about Courtney Summers' books are that they are so real and raw. They have dark themes and need a million trigger warnings but they're so real.

I didn't realize that I have read this already. Courtney is a phenomenal writer. I really enjoyed Parker's character, even though she was rough around the edges.

Didn't really care about the stereotypical characters. However, i think my teen students would appreciate this more than i did.

Book: Cracked Up to Be
Author: Courtney Summers
Rating: 5 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank the publisher, Wednesday Books, for sending me an ARC. I’m not really sure that we can call this an ARC since this is a reissue of a book.

Anyway, Courtney Summers entered on my radar last year with Sadie and when I was given the chance to read this title, I jumped. Courtney wasn’t even on my radar until Sadie and I don’t know how she escaped me. I love hard hitting contemporaries and that is what Courtney writes. Her writing is haunting and real and it just pulls you in. I love the way she takes real people and puts them in such difficult positions. While you are reading, it just pulls at your heart and you just can’t get away. It’s so raw and real.

What I loved about this book was the fact that we have a main character who isn’t all that likable. Parker is your typical high school mean girl who doesn’t care who she hurts and, even does it, on propose. She pushes people away and just tears out their hearts. You are not supposed to like her. She was the girl who also had everything going for her, then she fell from grace. She’s mean and a brat. People complain about her character, but this is just who she is. Not everyone in YA is supposed to be likable. I loved actually getting a story from the mean popular girl. It was just a nice breath of fresh air to have something different.

Parker is just a fine example of why I am drawn to Courtney’s works. Here is a girl who had it all and is completely messed up. I like how Courtney writes books that shows that life isn’t always prefect. Yes, I do like cute stories, but I do get more out of books like this. These are the types of books that invoke so many emotions. On the outside, Parker was the prefect girl and now she’s not. We get to see her struggle with trying to keep it together and not being afraid to lose it. We actually have a character who doesn’t want help and wishes people would just give up on her. It just felt so real and presented what some people do actually go through.

This book is deep. It’s not a long book, but, guys, it is deep. We have what looks like a prefect world, but once you get into the meat of the story, it’s clearly not. Like with Sadie, we have a lot of dark stuff going on here. I’m just going to say it now, because people can’t seem to use their best judgement anymore: THIS BOOK IS NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNG TEENS. There, I said it. There’s a lot of things in things in this book that are dark and unsettling. It’s going to mess with you.

Anyway, this book comes out again on February 4, 2020. It has new content including a letter for Courtney. If you enjoyed Sadie and want to see more of what this author has to offer, then I highly encourage you to check this title out. You will not be sorry.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/DWIN_fe-7tI

I received an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review

Wow. It’s hard to review a book like this. I mean, it’s really good and you should totally read it. You can read a plot summary on Amazon etc. So I don’t need to say any of that. What I will say is that it’s a pretty accurate picture of what it’s like to be a fucked up teenage girl. It’s always refreshing to see books about teenager girls first of all where the protagonists swear, drink, enjoy sex, and be bitchy the way teenagers actually are. So there’s that. But it’s also nice to see a girl living with trauma who is not a martyr or a saint, who is sexually active but doesn’t get a clear cut HEA, who knows she needs help but recognizes the systems in place to help fucked up teenage girls don’t always really help. That parents can be non-existent even when they are right there, that social workers and counselors don’t know what they’re doing anymore than anyone else. I don’t know. I don’t have a ton of faith that everything’s gonna work out for Parker 100% because that’s not how life or trauma works, but I enjoyed spending this time with her.

**YAY- this is a re-issue of Cracked Up to be, with an added forward from the author**

Parker Fadley is a high school senior dealing with some pretty heavy stuff! Parker’s story starts at her boyfriends party, a night she will never forget, and never forgive herself for.
Parker was the captain of the cheerleading squad, the most popular girl in school, and a better than straight-A student before that night. The flashbacks she has weave into the storyline so effortlessly, and they continue building until the very end.
Parker is not a very likable protagonist, she is an asshole full of teenage angst....but I found myself heartbroken over and over agin while reading her story, and I completely fell in love with her.
The new forward from the author is beautiful and poignant; it is so raw, and fits this story so perfectly that I thought about it a lot during the course of the book. While this is a YA novel, it deals with heavy subject matter- rape, suicide, sex, and drug & alcohol abuse.
While the book builds and builds up to the climax, it came so suddenly, and poof it was over. I would have liked to have seen the story play out more in the end. I felt like the story was a long fuse building to this very short, abrupt end.
*I originally gave this book 4 stars, but after some thought I am giving it a solid 5 stars. I gave it 4 stars because of the abrupt end, but I keep thinking about this book, and how I’m only sad about the ending because I wanted more!*

This book is a fantastic read, I enjoyed it so much that I devoured it in two sittings, and I’m already looking forward to reading the authors other books as this was my first!

I hope you all love Parker Fadley as much as I did! Happy reading, friends!

*Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my advanced copy of this book!

After reading “Sadie” and became speechless, numb, screaming for two days in pain, I learned from the experience, this author is a shining gem at the literature’s treasure box! And I promise myself everything Courtney Summer writes even they’re shopping list, ridiculous post it notes, greeting cards or restriction order against me for being half witted fan, I’m going to write them without questioning!

As soon as I heard this book’s republishing, instead of reading the previous works (yes my tbr list already threatens me to explode into my face any second and it’s getting fatter than my husband’s belly reminds you of an elephant’s belly after eating his girlfriend.) of writer including “All the Rage” (I swear I’ll read next week! I’m telling same thing every week and another Arc copy hits on my face and distracts my attention!) and “This is not a test”

So when I saw this book’s arc copy on the Netflix, I clicked the request button, feeling myself like a Voice judge, turning her chair at the blind audition. As soon as I saw it on my library, I began my salsa moves and in the mean time I dived into without waiting any further.

It was fast pacing, intriguing, interesting and brilliantly written book. I should give it 3.5 stars and round them up! Wait! What! If I love the writing, why am I cutting points? What the hell is wrong with me?

Wrong question! I wanted to ask the same one to the anti-heroine Parker Fadley from the beginning of the book. I wanted to say: “Hey, you self-absorbed, mean, manipulative, lying, shameless bitch! Why are you acting like that? Why are you self-sabotaging yourself by alienating your friends, your family?” She didn’t treat well to her new dog, which made me more pissed off and I wish I could jump into the book and slap her several times and come back after getting my hate out of my system!

Parker was shining star of her high school before she goes nuts and turning her life into a mess. She was cheerleader captain (she quitted), Chris, most popular guy of the school’s girlfriend (stole his money and broke up with him), future valedictorian ( now she steals her friends’ essays and copies them)! Something is really really really wrong with her but she denies to talk about even though everyone tolerates her antics and remains patient with her.

The author chose to create a heroine WE PASSIONATELY LOVE TO HATE HER! But we were hooked from the first page because we understood that something happened at Chris’ party and Parker’s close friend Jessie disappeared at that night. Parker keeps a big secret and she keeps treating the people around her like hell to try helping her. Especially new guy Jake who recently transferred to their school turns into a punch bag of her (Oh Parker, you gave me so much reason to drag you throughout the school halls by pulling your hair!) So you keep telling yourself! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HER?

The author’s tricky story-telling for giving us some quick glimpses and special sneak peeks from the night is the smartest way to keep our attention intact. We want to know the reasons, we want to know where the hell Jessie is and we want to know how far this crazy bitch Parker can go for self-destruction!

And BAMMM we got the answers. The ending is realistic, satisfying but not so much emotional or heart wrenching as I expected. And yes, I understand Parker’s motives but I still cannot empathize with her.

Overall: It was realistic, questioning, unconventional, riveting reading even though there are too many characters with not likeable behaviours and too much flaws. It was a great, fast YA fiction book. Not my favorite Courtney Summers book but it’s still so much better from too many books I’ve read from the same genre.

Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’sPress/Wednesday Books for sharing this fantastic ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest review.

I was so excited to read this one since I absolutely loved Sadie! I recommend that book all the time.

This one started off good. But I could not stand the main character. I had to stop reading this one before finishing unfortunately.