Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

Parker Fadley is a good girl gone bad. Her entire high school is placed on red alert when the cheerleading captain and future valedictorian starts coming to school drunk and failing classes. Her parents think she's suicidal and the school officials think she's playing for attention, but what Parker really wants is to just be left alone. She breaks up with her boyfriend and is mean to her friends in hopes of alienating herself from everyone who cares about her. Her plan goes from bad to worse when the new guy at school won't let her push him away. No one understands Parker's desire to disappear, but then they also don't know the truth. Parker is hiding something horrible that happened - something that may be her fault.

 
The only thing better than finally getting your hands on a book you've been waiting for is loving it more than you thought you would. Don't get me wrong, after all the rave reviews I'd read, I had high expectations for this book. Really high. Who knew they could be surpassed? Parker is such a great character. She's bitchy and ugly, but you can't help but love her because her pain is so honest. I was blown away by the way the "incident" is revealed. I kept thinking back to Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak while reading. It really wasn't difficult to figure out Melinda's secret. (Not that knowing the ending detracts at all from the awesomeness of Speak.) That being said, I love a good mystery, and even though Cracked Up to Be is not a particularly suspenseful book, it almost felt like I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the big reveal. Summers' cast of characters are perfectly flawed, and her story is completely relevant to today's youth. I wouldn't believe it was her debut novel if I didn't know any better. I can't wait to see what she has in store in her second novel Some Girls Are.