Y'all know I don't have a lot of "free" time right now. With thesis writing and classes etc., I shouldn't even be taking time to read for fun--but when I do it's excruciatingly slow, dribbled in little 20-minute increments whenever I can steal time. It can take me a month to get through a book, even when I really love it.
Which is why you know it MEANS something when I tell you that I devoured Courtney Summer's CRACKED UP TO BE in 24 hours, start to finish.
Wow.
Parker Fadley, the main character, is compelling and real and true. Even when it was uncomfortable, disturbing, I felt like I was right there in Parker's head for the whole bumpy ride. The plot is well done, the writing is fabulously spare--just enough.
READ THIS BOOK.
In fact, I believe in this book and Courtney so much, I'm gonna help you out. Last December I did an interview with Courtney and a contest, where she gave away a copy of CUTB. This time I'm going to spring for it.
If you don't yet have a copy of CUTB, post a comment below sharing a painful high school experience of your own, and you'll be entered to win a brand-new copy, shipped to you from Amazon! This contest will be open for 48 hours, until 10 AM MST on Thursday February 5th.
Edited to add: I'm not doing a value judgment on your posts or anything--it'll be a random draw. The sharing is just for fun, and to get you in that highschool frame of mind. :)
Ready? GO!
13 comments:
My most painful moment in highschool was as a teacher and not a student. This was in the days of ultra suede so you can tell how long ago that was. I had this great pair of blue US pants and thought I looked pretty good. I was writing up a lesson on the board at the end of the day and a student put up her hand. I thought she was asking a question about the lesson. With a red face she told me the seam was open at the back of my pants. Much to my chagrin, I realized the whole seam had come undone from the waistband to the crotch. I think it had been like that for most of my afternoon classes. blush.
Wow. I have so many painful high school moments to choose from! Like the time I realized too late how much I really *liked* my BFF guy friend when I saw him kissing another girl.
Tragic.
I'll I'm going to say is lemon meringue pie in my face. I don't think I need to say more.
Oh, lessee.
Could it be the time my newly ex-boyfriend of a whole year (in Grade 11) brought all my belongings that were left at his house to school and threw each and every thing at me in front of about 100 other kids? He tore up letters I had written and threw those at me too. He said a lot of things while he was doing this, and it was like everyone was frozen, staring. At the time, I felt like it was a silent show of support for him. Later, I came to understand that for a least some of those people, they were shocked at his cruelty. Either way, I'll never forget it.
Funny, I lately found out that one of my clients is his brother-in-law. I'm told he's a policeman in a big city now. Wonderful. Never been married, either. Hunh. Go figure.
Oh man, where to start? The date that dissapeared at Winter Formal? Being made fun of a lot? Feeling left out?
Even with all of that, I'd have to say my most painful experience in High School was when a close friend of mine just shut me out.
She wouldn't tell me what was wrong, what I did to make her upset etc. She just started ignoring me and pulling the rest of my friends with her. Basically telling them that she would not spend time with them if they spent time with me.
It ends up that I FINALLY got her to talk to me, and when I confronted her she told me it was because I was...get this... TOO NICE! Seriously? I was losing friends because I was too nice?
It was a nightmare for several months. But I soon learned that it was her loss, and the people who took her side weren't really my friends at all. But man that really hurt!
Oh my, do I really want to share an embarrassing moment? Feeling left out? Being made fun of? Ick ick ick, I'd had enough of all that by the 10th grade and told myself I wouldn't care anymore - and it worked! Let's see, among the dorky items there's the time I wore two pairs of stockings at the same time (to look like leggings, natch) and got found out... there's the time I had a bad cut on my knee, no bandaids in the house, so my mom put tissue paper on it and it stuck there for weeks and for some reason I wore knee-high socks so everyone could see it... ick ick ick...
Finding out my first-ever boyfriend (who went to another school) was cheating on me. He was dating my best friend's boyfriends' sister. Did he think I *wasn't* going to find out eventually?! Whatever. Shortly after dumping him, I met the love of my life and we've been together ever since.
Carmella (Car on the Blue Boards)
carmella@carmellavanvleet.com
When a friend of mine committed suicide. Enough said.
Ev (from the Blue Boards)
http://echristensen.atspace.com
Oh gosh. Too many. But perhaps the worst came when I was a Senior in high school and terribly in love with a boy who was off at college. I should have known my role as the hometown honey wouldn't last long. But thankfully the next year I was off to my own college adventures ... and new romances.
You're so great about promoting other writers, Susan!
Boy, it's hard to pick one. Going to Grad Night at Disneyland alone was a big bummer. (Alone surrounded by the whole senior class, that is.)
Hope all is well with you. Every time I drive by the off ramp for your home town, I think of you!
Take care,
Renee
Don't enter me because I have proudly paid for Courtney's awesome book! But who can resist mortifying moments...
Let's see...how about my first kiss? It was with a guy ten yrs older than me (heh), and naturally, all my friends were watching. I freaked out cuz i didn't know what to do, and I think I tried to eat him instead of kiss him. I knocked my teeth into his...HARD. And he said, "Ow, my teeth." End of kissing.
A painful memory... Hmm. Probably my sophomore year.
I was on the dance squad (aka the group that put on shows during halftime and school assemblies but didn't cheerlead on the sidelines). We practiced in the gym after school, and would share space with the cheerleading squad while the basketball team waited in the bleachers for their own practice.
I started to put on a bit of weight--it wasn't too much, maybe ten pounds. One day during practice, our choreographer singled me out in front of everyone--other squad members, the cheerleaders, the basketball team and all of their friends who hung around to watch practice--to tell me that I'd gotten too fat, and needed to spend practice doing laps instead of working on dance.
She spent ten minutes pointing out, in a very loud voice, my "problem areas."
Everyone heard. For weeks after that, the basketball players would moo whenever I walked past them. It was horrible, and I wound up dropping dance squad a few months later.
Now that I've relived that, I'm going to go cry in a corner somewhere. And maybe eat some brownies. ;)
I think for me it was the going out on what should have been an amazing first date, only to stare at each other in an awkward nothing to talk about dinner. No kiss. No nothing. Bad first date, as in first date ever for me.
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