Cracked Up to Be

Gr 10 Up—Parker Fadley was the perfect high school student. During a wild party, Parker sees her best friend Jessica's boyfriend kissing another girl and tells her. Jessica goes off with an older guy and is missing the next day. Parker blames herself, comes to class drunk, and is failing her classes. And she doesn't want to talk about it. There is an abundance of explicit language and situations in this novel (St. Martin's Griffin, 2011) by Courtney Summers that detract from the performance. Parker narrates the story, and Khristine Hvam adequately portrays the teenager as tough, but vulnerable. The characterizations of her parents, counselor, cheerleading rival, and ex-boyfriend are adequate, but never really catch the listener's interest. It's often difficult to keep track of transitions between the present and the recent past, when Jessica disappeared.—Ann Brownson, Ballenger Teachers Center, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston