Blog #4 - Final Thoughts

I didn't think the book would end the way it did, I was very surprising. I thought something happened to Parker herself, rather then her witnessing something terrible happen to someone else. The main issue in the novel, was the way Parker was dealing with what she saw that night. She is at conflict with her self. Parker just let the guy take Jessie away without saying anything to anyone, she blames her self, and make her self suffer. In the end Parker leaves school, to get help and figure her self out.

I enjoyed reading this book, I couldn't put it down because I wanted to know what happened that made her be like this. The author keeps you hooked after the first couple of pages. I definitely recommend it to girls, I don't think guys wouldn't be interested in a book like this.

Blog #3 - Conflict

There has been conflict thought out this whole book. Parker is at conflict with her self. I finished the book and finally found out what happened that was so horrible that made Parker want to kill herself and why she acts the way she does now...

In the summer, Parkers boyfriend, Chris, had a party at his house. As the party starts, Parker walks in the kitchen to see Evan taking a shot with a girl that's not his girlfriend. He asks her if she's going to tell Jessie (his girlfriend) she says she hasn't decided yet and leaves him. Parker takes one too many shots and just wants to stay inside, but her boyfriend pulls her outside to dance. After embarssing her self in front of everyone, she ends up lying on the front lawn trying to get her self together and sober up. Jessie comes up to her and tries to help her up and get her inside, but Parker doesn't want to go anywhere. Jessie really gets on her nerves so with out thinking, Parker tells jessie that Evan is cheating on her. Jessie starts crying and runs to find Evan.

Parker wakes up she’s inside and stumbles through the kitchen, heads out side and throws up in a bush until nothings left. As Parker starts to think, she realizes that she's done something that she wouldn't normally do, she "perfect", she can't act like this. Parker see’s Jessie flirting with a guy by the pool, she blinks, then she see’s her making out with a new guy. Parker blinks again and is in front of the drinks table, and was about to pour a drink of punch, until Becky says that is was spiked about an hour ago, so she put the cup down. Becky tells Parker that Jessie was crying said she wanted to run away. Parker asks where Jessie went, and Becky points to the woods behind the house...

Parker gets up and starts walking toward the woods, she gets about 30 steps in and sees two shapes in the darkness... Its Jessie and that guy, there having sex! Parker gets closer, Jessie’s crying and it’s not sex, its rape. The guy forces Jessie to her feet and drags her away. Parker stands there alone, until Chris comes and brings her inside. The next day police ask questions, but Parker says nothing. She doesn’t know why she didn’t say anything. She thinks this is all her fault because she told Jessie that Evan was cheating on her, making Jessie want to run away. Jessie tries to get back at Evan by getting with all these guys, but instead it gets her raped and killed. So Parker just sticks to the story that she ran away, since that was the last thing Jessie said to Becky. Parker steals $300 from Chris, and two hundred miles later she’s in a hotel with a bottle of sleeping pills and booze, ready to die. Parker gets found, ends up in the hospital where she gets her stomach pumped.

So Parker goes back to school a different person. Everyone knows that she tried to kill herself, but they don’t know the reason. Jessica Wellington is found, dead. The school has a memorial service for Jessie, but Parker can’t handle to going in. She ends up telling Evan that she was the last person to see Jessie that night, with a guy. Evan gets so mad he attacks her. Chris, Becky and Jake come to help her, but she gets up and just shrugs everyone off and goes into the school. Parker grabs the bottle of Jack Daniels in the back of her locker and waits until she knows she’d good and wasted to leave the bathroom stall. She bumps into someone in the halls, she wishes it was Grey or Henley so she could get kicked out, but it was Becky. Parker wakes up at Chris’ house, hugging the toilet . She realizes she needs help, goes to the shrink her parents wanted her to go to, and leaves school to get things figured out.

Parker has been flighting with herself with the fact that she let Jessie get dragged away that night. She still doesn’t know why she didn’t say anything. I guess Parker just thought that the world would be better without her, if Jessie wasn’t alive.
This has made Parker have other conflicts with her parents, her friends, and counselors.

Question: If you were Parker, how would you of reacted seeing Jessie in the woods? How would you deal with it? What do you think about Parkers reation and how she delt with it?

Blog #2 - Character

Parker Fadley is the main character in my book. She used to be perfect, but something terrible happened to make her crash, and be at her lowest. Through out reading, I have learned what happened that night. Chris (her boyfriend at the time) had a party, and Parker had a little too much to drink and made a total fool of herself. She gets very upset with her self and at Chris for letting her get to this point of embarrassment. I don't know all the details or why, but she ended up taking a bunch of sleeping pills while drunk, to kill herself.

Parker is now the total opposite of what she was before. She used to be friendly, kind, caring, and talkative. Now she's very rude, sarcastic and blunt. Parker has had to make alot of decisions from the start, when she was popular she had to decide the cheerleading routines, plan parties, and be the top student. Now she doesn't make such responsible and tough decisions, she just makes complicated ones that she'd rather not make. For example, Jake (the new kid thats determind to figure her out and who really likes her) asked her to go to the semi formal. She didn't want to go because of all the people that will be there because she hates crowded places. But she decides to go, because even if she wants to fight her feelings, she likes Jake too. Things got a little hot and steamy between the two that night. Parker made Jake promise that everything would go back to normal on Monday at school, and he did what he promised, but went a little over board, and ignored her the whole day. She knew going to semi was a bad idea.

Parkers flaws begin to show after the night of the party. She's now insecure with herself, depressed, and she has bad anxiety. Parker doesn't like being in rooms filled with people, especially people that know who she is, and what she's done. Once when she was in an assembly at school, she felt like everyone was looking at her. She also felt like all the air in the room was being used by everyone, leaving her no air to breath. She had to run out of the gym to find clean air to breath. This happens to her quite often.

Q: How can you relate to Parker Fadley? Have you had to make a hard decision that you regretted?

Blog #1 - Intitial Reaction

She was perfect.
Cheerleading captain, girlfriend of the most popular guy in school, future valedictorian, and honour roll student.

But when Parker Fadley starts drinking at school, breaks up with her boyfriend, and failing her classes, everyone goes on alert. Parker just wants to be left alone, and talk to no one. Something horrible has happened to make her crash so bad, only she knows the truth, and it just might be her fault.

Parker tries to get through each day at school simply, but thats not so easy when your ex-boyfriend is still your friend, and your captain position on the cheerleading team is taken over by your... fake friend. The new kid Jake is determined to figure out what Parker is all about and might be falling for her. To make her life even more complicated her parents have put her on a suicide watch and she has to meet with Ms. Grey, the guidance counselor every Friday to talk about her week.

This novel keeps you hooked on the first page. Courtney Summers is a real, down to earth, and humorous author. I really like this book, it's impossible put it down. I can't wait to read on, and find out the truth about Parker Fadley.

Question: What do you think Parker did to make her fall this low?