Book Review: Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

Parker has always had to be perfect in everything. Perfect grades, perfect boyfriend, perfect hair and make-up everyday, perfect cheer routines. So when something happens that makes her realize she's not perfect after all, Parker loses it and pushes away everyone and everything she once cared so much about. Will Parker face her demons and forgive herself before it's too late?

What veers close to being an overly melodramatic saga of a downward spiral into drugs, alcohol and hopelessness after a tramatic event is saved by Parker's undeniable sass and ultimate will to live and to succeed. It seems perfectionist Parker, though "popular", was just as difficult to like as self-destructive Parker, but that doesn't stop boys, or the reader for that matter, from finding her incredibly interesting.

As it turns out, the novel, like Parker herself, is not perfect - for example there is a wierd subplot involving an adopted dog that didn't work for me - but hey, even though life is messy, it is still worth living and a book that reflects that truth as honestly and expertly as this one does, certainly deserves to be read.

Thanks to LibraryThing for the Early Review copy. Cracked Up to Be is now available in paperback.