, by Courtney SummersPublished: December 23, 2008
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Pages: 214
Overall Rating:
What's the worst thing you've ever done?
When "Perfect" Parker Fadley starts drinking at school and failing her classes, all of St. Peter's High goes on alert. How has the cheerleading captain, girlfriend of the most popular guy in school, consummate teacher's pet, and future valedictorian fallen so far from grace?
Parker doesn't want to talk about it. She'd just like to be left alone, to disappear, to be ignored. But her parents have placed her on suicide watch and her counselors are demanding the truth. Worse, there's a nice guy falling in love with her and he's making her feel things again when she'd really rather not be feeling anything at all.
Nobody would have guessed she'd turn out like this. But nobody knows the truth.
Something horrible has happened, and it just might be her fault.
The only way I can really think to describe this book is--it was okay. Just okay, nothing special. First of all, it isn't at all what I thought it would be.
The characters weren't like-able. Parker is the most self-centered protagonist I have ever read about. She's so self-absorbed, it makes me sick. She's rude to everyone, and yet, they still like her. Take Chris for example, her ex-boyfriend, who somehow still claims to love her after all of the horrible things she does and says to him. Including going out of her way to make sure he doesn't get over her, while making fun of him constantly about the fact that he can't get over her. It's pathetic. And then there's Becky, who she throws into Chris's arms, but makes a point to ruin their relationship. Jake walks into the story not knowing the old, nice Parker. He doesn't even know what he's missing like Chris does, he just meets her as the horrible person she's become. And he LIKES her. A lot. I don't know who's more pathetic, him or Chris. On top of that, Jake and Chris become best friends and have no resentment towards each other, despite the fact that they're both in love with a pathetic self-absorbed b-tch! Which is a bit unrealistic.
The end couldn't come soon enough, when we finally find out what happens to Parker's best friend Jessica. This reveals the reason Parker has become the person she has become, which is completely ridiculous, not to mention predictable.
I will say, I liked the writing style. It was enough to pull me in, despite all of the things I disliked about the book. I plan on reading more from Courtney Summers, because I think we could really get a great story out of her.
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Ha, interesting to read a less positive review since everyone's been raving about this book and I have to say I wasn't terribly impressed with it either - in fact, I gave up after less than 100 pages, it just annoyed me.
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