Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Cracked Up to Be

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Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

8 reviews

tripleareads's review

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dark medium-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

aravenclawlibraryx's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Title: Cracked Up to Be

Author: Courtney Summers

Genre: YA Contemporary

Format: owned paperback

Star Rating: 3.5 stars

tw: underage drinking, missing children, hospitalization, animal death, rape, death, attempted suicide, suicidal ideation, infidelity

I really thought I was going to like this book more than I did. But unfortunately, I just didn’t fall in love with this book. While I think it’s an incredibly important book, I just couldn’t bond with the main character. It’s probably because I couldn’t relate to what she was going through or who she was before everything happened.

I understand completely that Parker was a very broken individual, even before everything happened. I understand that her behavior is rooted in guilt for something she thinks is her fault. But I just had such a problem with the way Parker was to everyone. I don’t care how much you are hurting, there is no need to be so disrespectful. I am also not a fan of the trope that if something bad happens, even if it isn’t your fault, you must punish yourself. I just can’t stand that.

But despite my complaints about Parker, this book describes guilt and grief so well. I would even go so far as to say that the guilt Parker is feeling is borderline survivor’s guilt. Parker is a great example of how grief and guilt can completely change a person, to the point where they aren’t even recognizable to themselves or others. So even though I had complaints, I still enjoyed all other aspects of this book, including the complex relationship with guilt.

Overall, I still recommend this book despite not falling in love with it. Courtney Summers certainly knows how to write hard-hitting books with characters you are either going to fall in love with or can’t stand. She also knows how to write books that touch on incredibly difficult topics that often aren’t discussed. And that’s why, even though I may not love all her books, I still highly recommend them.

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ellainalisa's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Content Warnings

thebooknook180's review

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

shannanigans92's review

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

Content Warnings

abbeyrose0329's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is such a cool and different YA coming of age. It's very dark and edgy and expertly depicts the 'teenage destructive mental breakdown'

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fountain_of_book's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book had me confused for pretty much all of it. It was so worth it though. I highly recommend this if you loved Saddie.
Spoiler
I wish/hope there is a story to what really happened to Jessie and even and update on how Parker did after therapy.

Bold

Content Warnings

inmidnights's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I’ve been putting off reading a Summers’ book after reading (and sobbing and having a philosophical crisis over) Sadie last year, because I’d clued in on the other book summaries that her books are definitely the kind I need to be emotionally ready for.

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.

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