Enchanting Review: Cracked Up To Be

CRACKED UP TO BE
COURTNEY SUMMERS
Contemporary YA
St. Martin’s Griffin
ISBN# 978-0-312-38369-5
214 Pages
$9.95
Trade--Available Now

Rating: 4.5 Enchantments

Parker Fadley is no longer the girl everyone used to know and love. All Parker knows she is has to live up to the so-called good behavior expected of her by the school principal and guidance counselor in order to graduate--something that seems to be her only goal. She honestly doesn’t care about her old life or her old her friends. All she wants is to escape.

Parker first comes off kind of abrasive, but as the story goes along and the past slowly starts being revealed through her flashbacks, you start to see why she’s changed from the perfect A student, cheerleading captain into the girl she is now. Surprisingly her strange relationship with newcomer Jake is the catalyst it seems for her breakthrough to start. I have to say I liked Parker a lot, I loved her witty comments, she was never short of a good comeback to her ex-boyfriend, Jake or even Becky, the girl who’s taking her place with her ex and the cheerleading squad. I liked Jake too, how he never gave up on Parker and was always sorta there. I liked how he broke down her walls. One of my favorite scenes is when Jake gives Parker a print out on breathing on the school bus after one of her anxiety attacks. Not only does the scene have some great dialogue that me had laughing, it also showed growth on Parker’s part when she starts to see Jake in a bit of a different light.

CRACKED UP TO BE is a great debut novel. Readers looking for a not your typical young adult read should pick this one up! Parker is definitely not a character you come across that often.

Courtney Summers lives and write in Canada, where she spends most of her time behind a camera, at a piano or with a word processing program. Visit her website at www.courtneysummers.ca

Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
March 2009