With these two books (#34 and #35) I definitely took a look at the dark side of teenage girls. But - I am so sheltered. Do girls really push each other down flights of stairs? Or lock a girl into a utility closet with the guy who had previously attempted to rape her? Like, as a lark?
The beginning of Cracked Up to Be starts:
Four years, two suicides, one death, one rape, two pregnancies (one abortion), three overdoses, countless drunken antics, pantsings, spilled food, theft, fights, broken limbs, turf wars -- every day, a turf war -- six months until graduation and no one gets a medal when they get out. But everything you do here counts.Sounds... almost like it might be a fun book? Not so fun, really. In both books, we have a popular girl who faces a horrific event (friend goes missing, attempted rape...) and who pays the price by losing her status with the In Crowd, enduring pretty awful treatment thereafter. That's a pretty simplistic plot summary, but I don't want to ruin the stories. It's not "Mean Girls" camp, either. It's physical violence, overdosing, psychiatric evaluations, emotionally absent parents.
I thought both of these books were really good. Protagonists generally well-formed, complex situations where nothing is black and white. Definitely worth reading. I know they're not non-fiction works, but I felt they were probably realistic. Sure put my own (comparatively pain-free) high school experience into perspective.
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