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nelnuytkens's review against another edition
4.0
This book was so raw, honest and real. It's written in a way that immediately sucks you in and you quickly feel connected to the story and its characters.
This is only my second Courtney Summers read, but I'll recommend this author to anyone who ever asks me for recommendations, because damn!
Parker, the main character is messed up, she's just plain rude, brutally honest (or rude, whatever floats your boat), self-absorbed and manipulative. She's also a bit of a mystery, one second you think you know her, the next she's off doing the complete opposite of what you thought she'd do. I adore these type of complex characters and I adore Courtney Summers for writing them so well.
The way this story is written is really smart. There's little snippets of an important event scattered throughout the book, just enough to give you a little context, but also not enough to keep you hooked to want to find out more. Brilliant.
You might make the mistake of reading the blurb about his book and thinking it's a typical highschool story about mean girls meeting cute guys and the whole cliché, but this is NOT that kind of book, believe me.
One last thing; it's a sad book. A very sad book. This book broke my heart about every other page or so. (Didn't make me love it less though.)
This is only my second Courtney Summers read, but I'll recommend this author to anyone who ever asks me for recommendations, because damn!
Parker, the main character is messed up, she's just plain rude, brutally honest (or rude, whatever floats your boat), self-absorbed and manipulative. She's also a bit of a mystery, one second you think you know her, the next she's off doing the complete opposite of what you thought she'd do. I adore these type of complex characters and I adore Courtney Summers for writing them so well.
The way this story is written is really smart. There's little snippets of an important event scattered throughout the book, just enough to give you a little context, but also not enough to keep you hooked to want to find out more. Brilliant.
You might make the mistake of reading the blurb about his book and thinking it's a typical highschool story about mean girls meeting cute guys and the whole cliché, but this is NOT that kind of book, believe me.
One last thing; it's a sad book. A very sad book. This book broke my heart about every other page or so. (Didn't make me love it less though.)
zoulfa's review against another edition
5.0
this book was published in 2008. so about 15 years ago. i was 13 years old. today i am 28. the premise of this story holds up all these years later. it might as well have been published in 2023. and isn't that just a heart-wrenching view of the horrors girls have been facing for decades?
snarkywench's review against another edition
4.0
To be honest, there is not a lot that I can say about this book that hasn't already been said on every YA blog on the web. This book is an amazing debut effort by Courtney Summers and should be lauded as such. In fact, my lovely friend ShabbyGeek even wrote an insight review for this book already.
I am going to keep it short. Parker is like a squid. I can hear you querying me already but I do have a point. She's hard to get a handle of - she's constantly moving, manoeuvring and slipping out of any box you'd like to put her in. She's brittle and yet malleable. Parker can bombard you with an onslaught of lies, disarm you with a nicety and then hurt you with a blunt statement of fact. And yet all of that is a inky veil to keep herself isolated, the way she wants because she feels she doesn't deserve anything positive. She wants to stay in the shadows, in the pit because the darkness is punishment and her solace.
Parker's a car crash that one can't look away from. She's consistently horrid to all those around her and as such it's a testament to Summers, that I liked, no loved, Parker as much as I did.
I loved the way this book came together. Particularly that the flashback built upon one another like Lego blocks. Each extending the former until you had something completely different to what you initially anticipated. Summers established a strong, unique and (most importantly) consistent voice in Parker. More impressive is that despite the traumatic event that is revealed in this book, Parker really didn't alter that much from her former self. There is no miraculous good girl/bad girl conversion here. Parker wasn't all that nice to begin with, she just transferred her energy from forcing people to like her to forcing them to keep a distance. Despite all that, she is magnetic and this is the reason so many people continually reach out to her.
I loved this book. I cannot wait to see what Courtney Summers: Twitterer (Tweeter?) Extraordinaire comes up with next. I would also like to suggest that an Aussie publisher hurry up and buy the distribution rights for this book, it's a great buy!
I am going to keep it short. Parker is like a squid. I can hear you querying me already but I do have a point. She's hard to get a handle of - she's constantly moving, manoeuvring and slipping out of any box you'd like to put her in. She's brittle and yet malleable. Parker can bombard you with an onslaught of lies, disarm you with a nicety and then hurt you with a blunt statement of fact. And yet all of that is a inky veil to keep herself isolated, the way she wants because she feels she doesn't deserve anything positive. She wants to stay in the shadows, in the pit because the darkness is punishment and her solace.
Parker's a car crash that one can't look away from. She's consistently horrid to all those around her and as such it's a testament to Summers, that I liked, no loved, Parker as much as I did.
I loved the way this book came together. Particularly that the flashback built upon one another like Lego blocks. Each extending the former until you had something completely different to what you initially anticipated. Summers established a strong, unique and (most importantly) consistent voice in Parker. More impressive is that despite the traumatic event that is revealed in this book, Parker really didn't alter that much from her former self. There is no miraculous good girl/bad girl conversion here. Parker wasn't all that nice to begin with, she just transferred her energy from forcing people to like her to forcing them to keep a distance. Despite all that, she is magnetic and this is the reason so many people continually reach out to her.
I loved this book. I cannot wait to see what Courtney Summers: Twitterer (Tweeter?) Extraordinaire comes up with next. I would also like to suggest that an Aussie publisher hurry up and buy the distribution rights for this book, it's a great buy!
tobyyy's review against another edition
3.0
Wellll... this was my first book by Courtney Summers. I went into it without having read the blurb (well, I mean, I read the blurb when I bought it, but by the time I got around to reading it, it had been on my Kindle for about a year -- so of course I forgot what it was about). And... well, I'm not sure what to think.
I liked the fact that Parker was a 100% different heroine from your average YA heroine. I liked the fact that she was a smart-ass. I didn't so much like how bitchy she was, but I guess that comes with just who Parker is. That being said, I never really clicked with any of the characters in the book. Becky was horrible, Chris seemed insincere, and Jake -- as another reviewer described him -- seemed to be very much a lost puppy.
Overall, not sure if I'd recommend. It was a good read, went by pretty quickly, but honestly? I'm still not 100% sure what happened between Evan and Parker... still not sure what the whole deal between them was about Jessie... I don't know. I mean, I followed the way that Summers wrote Parker's flashbacks, but there was just too little there for me to 100% grasp what was going on.
(Or maybe having read this in 2 days with a lot of interruptions confused me more than I realize, I don't know! ha...)
I liked the fact that Parker was a 100% different heroine from your average YA heroine. I liked the fact that she was a smart-ass. I didn't so much like how bitchy she was, but I guess that comes with just who Parker is. That being said, I never really clicked with any of the characters in the book. Becky was horrible, Chris seemed insincere, and Jake -- as another reviewer described him -- seemed to be very much a lost puppy.
Overall, not sure if I'd recommend. It was a good read, went by pretty quickly, but honestly? I'm still not 100% sure what happened between Evan and Parker... still not sure what the whole deal between them was about Jessie... I don't know. I mean, I followed the way that Summers wrote Parker's flashbacks, but there was just too little there for me to 100% grasp what was going on.
(Or maybe having read this in 2 days with a lot of interruptions confused me more than I realize, I don't know! ha...)
jcrawford728's review against another edition
5.0
Another amazing book by Courtney Summers. I get why I cannot keep this on my shelf. Parker is honest and real. What Parker has been hiding and trying to deal with was shocking and I am still thinking about it and processing it. Well written and a great overall book.
meganhagmaier10's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book in middle school but could not for the life of me remember what it was about
parker_beyers's review against another edition
4.0
This is the only book I've read where the MC's name is Parker. I mean, she's nothing like me (thank god), but it was cool to experience. I felt called out every two seconds, even though I have absolutely no involvement in the story. TBH, it's sort of the same feeling as when the new Spiderman trailer came out, and I kept seeing this everywhere:
Fun times.
Anyway, book Parker is kind of a terrible person, and I love that. She's so mean to literally everyone, and that made for a refreshing reading experience. I don't want to go into plot details, but if you're looking for a character you can love to hate, maybe give this novel a try. It's interesting to see how the mind of someone like this thinks.
Fun times.
Anyway, book Parker is kind of a terrible person, and I love that. She's so mean to literally everyone, and that made for a refreshing reading experience. I don't want to go into plot details, but if you're looking for a character you can love to hate, maybe give this novel a try. It's interesting to see how the mind of someone like this thinks.
trisha_thomas's review against another edition
3.0
I'm a little torn with this book.
I thought the main character, Parker, was very well done. Angsty, struggling and imperfect. And she's really going through something - and you are there with her. Through her horrific attempts to make everyone leave her alone, her drinking and these flashbacks to a party and her panic attacks (for anyone that hasn't had one, this book does a very good job of giving some of the nitty-gritty about having them). And Parker's break - it all makes sense. I understand her as the book goes on and I sympathize and don't hate her at all. Her angst and anger is forgivable. Her cruelty - well, I don't know but everyone seems awfully quick to be okay with it...
The only thing I didn't like about this book....I didn't understand Jake. I understood Chris. There was history there. He still loved Parker - but not because she is Parker and is so great but because he knew who she was before AND because he was willing to go through whatever with her. He'd always wanted more of her- and to know what was going on. He loved the whole package and was ready to go through hell and back with her (if that's what it took).
But, she always sounded like a rough person to like - perfectionist that DEMANDS perfection from everyone, not just herself. And Chris had already put up with that (she certainly wasn't nice, she must have been VERY pretty.....)
Except Jake. He's new on the scene. He doesn't see the cool cheerleader girl. He sees the totally spastic one that snaps her fingers all the time, won't answer questions without sarcasm or complete cruelty (and he's a stranger here!)and goes full days without even speaking to Jake even when he tries to talk to her!!!! and YET - he just keeps going back to her, over and over - trying humor, trying to talk to her, trying to follow her...I mean REALLY?!
I just kept thinking 'Why Jake? Why are you taking this from her? How on earth can she be the only hot girl in your school for you to take this abuse?!' I remember high school boys - I don't think he would have tried that hard.
I thought the main character, Parker, was very well done. Angsty, struggling and imperfect. And she's really going through something - and you are there with her. Through her horrific attempts to make everyone leave her alone, her drinking and these flashbacks to a party and her panic attacks (for anyone that hasn't had one, this book does a very good job of giving some of the nitty-gritty about having them). And Parker's break - it all makes sense. I understand her as the book goes on and I sympathize and don't hate her at all. Her angst and anger is forgivable. Her cruelty - well, I don't know but everyone seems awfully quick to be okay with it...
The only thing I didn't like about this book....I didn't understand Jake. I understood Chris. There was history there. He still loved Parker - but not because she is Parker and is so great but because he knew who she was before AND because he was willing to go through whatever with her. He'd always wanted more of her- and to know what was going on. He loved the whole package and was ready to go through hell and back with her (if that's what it took).
But, she always sounded like a rough person to like - perfectionist that DEMANDS perfection from everyone, not just herself. And Chris had already put up with that (she certainly wasn't nice, she must have been VERY pretty.....)
Except Jake. He's new on the scene. He doesn't see the cool cheerleader girl. He sees the totally spastic one that snaps her fingers all the time, won't answer questions without sarcasm or complete cruelty (and he's a stranger here!)and goes full days without even speaking to Jake even when he tries to talk to her!!!! and YET - he just keeps going back to her, over and over - trying humor, trying to talk to her, trying to follow her...I mean REALLY?!
I just kept thinking 'Why Jake? Why are you taking this from her? How on earth can she be the only hot girl in your school for you to take this abuse?!' I remember high school boys - I don't think he would have tried that hard.
bethany6788's review against another edition
3.0
Finished this one today. It was definitely different. I have read a couple books by this author and Sadie is still my favorite.
I think Parker was made pretty unlikeable on purpose. That sort of makes her endearing. I know she’s a teenager who saw something awful and did nothing, but she treats everyone so badly around her. The end was satisfying enough though!
I think Parker was made pretty unlikeable on purpose. That sort of makes her endearing. I know she’s a teenager who saw something awful and did nothing, but she treats everyone so badly around her. The end was satisfying enough though!