Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

I'm just going to come out and say it right now. I am a huge Courtney Summers fan. I discovered her books last summer and after reading almost all of them, I fell 100% in love with her style. Cracked Up to Be is her first book and the first one I read. But it's not the one which made me fall in love with her.

Don't get me wrong, Cracked Up to Be is a solid book. It tells the story of Parker Fadley, a girl who used to be Little Miss Perfect but has fallen from grace. I know, I know-standard YA fare right? You'd expect this book to be utterly tedious, full of first-world problems and an ex-cheerleader's whiny ranting. You'd expect it to be predictable with your standard high school stereotypes who all act like complete idiots just to prolong the inevitable conclusion. You'd expect it to not be worth reading.

Trust me when I say this novel lives up to its name. Parker is definitely a disturbed girl and better still, she's written accurately as one. This is no toned-down, light and fluffy story. It might not be as brutal as some of her other works but the characters have real problems and they act like it too. True, the side characters are sometimes a bit flat and not really developed enough to seem truly realistic. But what is realistic is the way Parker is shown to deal with things and really, it's almost disturbing to read at times. Kudos to Summers too for not going with the expected 'horrible incident' either. I definitely did not guess how this book was going to turn out and that's refreshing considering how the concept of popular girls with dark secrets is hardly a new one.

So why does this book not get 5 stars? Well as I mentioned, the characters fall a little short sometimes. The ending itself is also a little unsatisfying as it doesn't really come to a solid conclusion (which I don't always need but it would have been nice in this case) On the whole though, Cracked Up to Be is definitely worth checking out. It might not be Summers' best but as far as books go, it's still pretty damn good

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