sebradley29's review
4.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Drug use, Child death, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship
coolcat02's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Self harm
samh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Vomit, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Car accident
Moderate: Rape
bimwittt's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Rape and Alcohol
shannanigans92's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Rape and Murder
inmidnights's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
And it’s true. Cracked Up To Be delivers with her simple prose that tells as much as it holds back, the masterful use of mystery that teases you with just enough that you simultaneously want and don’t want to skip ahead to ruin the reveal, and a protagonist that you can’t help but feel for.
Straight A+, honor student with distinction, cheerleading captain, popular girl Parker is in her senior year of college—and is on suicide watch. Hellbent on a path to self-destruct, Cracked Up To Be is about the event that led perfectionist Parker to this point, juxtaposed with her current interactions with her peers, a new kid in school, her family, and school authority figures.
The story is told through Parker’s point of view. We experience her blackouts and flashbacks, her attempts to shut down feelings and follow her thought proces as she tries to self-destruct. While we are meant to ‘feel’ her firsthand, there were a couple of instances in the present timeline that weren’t clear narratively because Parker blacked out/had a flashback. These two instances in particular (spoiler):
Spoiler
(Learning about Jessie’s confirmed death, talking to the “sparrow” in the corridor).When the mystery is finally revealed, I do like that it wasn’t just the single event of that night that caused Parker to ‘change’. Rather, it was the nail in the coffin of something that had been there all along, something underneath the surface—something that her best friend and her boyfriend saw and were trying to help her with.
Perfection really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
“And it’s awkward and I hate it, but I have to accept it because I’m supposed to be accepting things now and working with what’s left. Because that’s what my psychiatrist told me to do.”
I also really liked that Parker had a solid circle of people that genuinely cared for her—from her (ex)boyfriend who never left her no matter how often she tried pushing him away, her family, the school authority figures, a girl she looked at as beneath her (and who was simultaneously jealous of her and craved her approval, yet was there for her in all the major moments that mattered), and even a new kid in school. Though, while Jake was instrumental in making Parker feel alive/want to live again, it did feel like he liked Parker as a manic pixie dream girl at the beginning.
However, as good as Summers is in engrossing us into a protagonist’s troubled head/voice, when that moment of confession in the present day and the beginning stage of acceptance came, we’re instead shoved to a quick gloss-over and fast forward. While we’ve been with Parker and her thoughts and negative emotions, we don’t get to experience her sharing her story, we don’t get to be with her in taking that small step to begin healing.
Reading a Summers’ book is like entering the protagonist’s head and experiencing their mental health problems firsthand. I wish she could’ve given us that little bit of catharsis that comes from finally unburdening as well.
Moderate: Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Rape