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willwork4airfare's review against another edition
5.0
Is it fair to write a review for a book while you're still crying after finishing it? Probably not, but it's 3 AM so I have to do it anyway.
This is one of the best teen books I've read in a while, and trust me, I read a lot of them. The characters are likable and sympathetic, even when Parker, the main character, is being a sarcastic brat to people who obviously care for her. You instantly like her because she's confident, she knows her way around people, and she'll have you laughing with all her comebacks.
This novel reminds me a lot of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, except that I actually liked it. The jumps back and forth through time give you more and more insight into why Parker acts the way she does and keeps you in suspense the entire time. About midway through the novel, you can kind of get the feel for how the end is going to play out, but the details are so much more vivid and startling that you feel like you didn't see it coming anyway.
I loved this book and I'm already looking up other books by this author. It takes a lot of talent to take a cliché topic and make it refreshing and compelling. Awesome book.
This is one of the best teen books I've read in a while, and trust me, I read a lot of them. The characters are likable and sympathetic, even when Parker, the main character, is being a sarcastic brat to people who obviously care for her. You instantly like her because she's confident, she knows her way around people, and she'll have you laughing with all her comebacks.
This novel reminds me a lot of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, except that I actually liked it. The jumps back and forth through time give you more and more insight into why Parker acts the way she does and keeps you in suspense the entire time. About midway through the novel, you can kind of get the feel for how the end is going to play out, but the details are so much more vivid and startling that you feel like you didn't see it coming anyway.
I loved this book and I'm already looking up other books by this author. It takes a lot of talent to take a cliché topic and make it refreshing and compelling. Awesome book.
daffz's review against another edition
2.0
I read this book as an ebook so I couldn't see the page count, but it's hard to believe goodreads on the page count of this book. How is it so short? It took me ages to get through it. Probably because I had a lot of time focusing on it.
I just didn't connect with this book, which was a disappointment. I've read two of this author's books before, and liked both a lot more than this one. Both of her other books were impactful and intriguing. This one mostly left me cold. I feel like it took too long for the book to explain what had happened, and when it did, it didn't really feel satisfying. None of the characters felt real to me, and it really irritated me how Parker only seemed to know three people at her school. I understand that she was avoiding people, but it still felt strange to only see Chris, Becky, and Jake for most of the book.
This book failed to capture me in any way, really. I had trouble getting through it and nearly DNFed it. This one wasn't for me.
I just didn't connect with this book, which was a disappointment. I've read two of this author's books before, and liked both a lot more than this one. Both of her other books were impactful and intriguing. This one mostly left me cold. I feel like it took too long for the book to explain what had happened, and when it did, it didn't really feel satisfying. None of the characters felt real to me, and it really irritated me how Parker only seemed to know three people at her school. I understand that she was avoiding people, but it still felt strange to only see Chris, Becky, and Jake for most of the book.
This book failed to capture me in any way, really. I had trouble getting through it and nearly DNFed it. This one wasn't for me.
taviamorgan's review against another edition
4.0
i really liked this book. i think there was room for a little more romance or something cause i just felt like it was lacking a bit. one description i read said she was falling in love and because that didn’t really happen i was a tiny bit disappointed. i did like this book and these characters i just think i wanted a little bit more
noirbettie's review against another edition
5.0
This book is so amazing that I now want to go back and change every book I've ever given five stars to something like two or three stars, no matter how good they were, because they were not THIS good.
More coherent thoughts to come when I am slightly less emotionally gut-punched (i.e. more than an hour after I finish reading).
More coherent thoughts to come when I am slightly less emotionally gut-punched (i.e. more than an hour after I finish reading).
nnneato's review against another edition
1.0
The reviews here and the commentary written on the book itself make me wonder if I'm reading a completely different copy... but that can't be true...
From page one, you can tell this story is about a bitch. From chapter two you can tell this story is about a manipulative bitch. From chapter three, you can tell this story is one of the ones that holds back the real story from the reader. Unfortunately, it doesn't do a very good job of giving anything else to hold the reader over until the big reveal. Parker is just plain unlikeable to me... I see other reviewers claiming she's depressed, but she obviously has the energy to carry out her crazy alienating tactics and never once is immobilized by despair or guilt. Then again, I did skim from page 20.
Just one of those books that makes me wonder if I'm reading what other people are reading.
From page one, you can tell this story is about a bitch. From chapter two you can tell this story is about a manipulative bitch. From chapter three, you can tell this story is one of the ones that holds back the real story from the reader. Unfortunately, it doesn't do a very good job of giving anything else to hold the reader over until the big reveal. Parker is just plain unlikeable to me... I see other reviewers claiming she's depressed, but she obviously has the energy to carry out her crazy alienating tactics and never once is immobilized by despair or guilt. Then again, I did skim from page 20.
Just one of those books that makes me wonder if I'm reading what other people are reading.
lookingforamandaa's review against another edition
3.0
In the new introduction that Courtney Summers added when this book was published again, she mentions that Parker is a hugely unlikeable character. This is so true. She’s self-destructive and beyond unlikeable. She was pretty relatable because I was pretty self-destructive when I was her age. I liked that she had friends (sort of) that were there and tried to keep her accountable.
This book was almost hard to read, but the mystery and suspense of the flashbacks (which led up to why Parker went from head bitch to almost drop out) kept me interested. I really wanted to know what Parker went through to cause this change. I was a little disappointed with the reveal. It was a terrible thing, but really, she did a terrible thing. She didn’t look out for her friend and that just made me mad. It made me angry with an already unlikable character.
Overall, this was a pretty quick read. If you like Courtney Summer’s other books, you’ll probably like this one too.
This book was almost hard to read, but the mystery and suspense of the flashbacks (which led up to why Parker went from head bitch to almost drop out) kept me interested. I really wanted to know what Parker went through to cause this change. I was a little disappointed with the reveal. It was a terrible thing, but really, she did a terrible thing. She didn’t look out for her friend and that just made me mad. It made me angry with an already unlikable character.
Overall, this was a pretty quick read. If you like Courtney Summer’s other books, you’ll probably like this one too.
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!