Review: Some Girls Are By: Courtney Summers

Title: Some Girls Are
Author: Courtney Summers
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 256 pages (January 5th 2010)
From: Amazon

Synopsis: Climbing to the top of the social ladder is hard--falling from it is even harder. Regina Afton used to be a member of the Fearsome Fivesome, an all-girl clique both feared and revered by the students at Hallowell High... until vicious rumors about her and her best friend's boyfriend start going around.

Now Regina's been "frozen out" and her ex-best friends are out for revenge. If Regina was guilty, it would be one thing, but the rumors are far from the terrifying truth and the bullying is getting more intense by the day. She takes solace in the company of Michael Hayden, a misfit with a tragic past who she herself used to bully. Friendship doesn't come easily for these onetime enemies, and as Regina works hard to make amends for her past, she realizes Michael could be more than just a friend... if threats from the Fearsome Foursome don't break them both first.

Tensions grow and the abuse worsens as the final days of senior year march toward an explosive conclusion in this dark new tale from the author of Cracked Up To Be.

Review: 4.5 Stars - WOW - where to start. First off this story was amazing, which is hard to say due to the content. The writing and characters were spot on and sadly true. It brought me back to High School and honestly, I could see this happening, which is heartbreaking.

Regina is sitting pretty at the top of the High School food chain when, at a party one weekend she's deemed the designated driver. While being the sober one she's faced with a horrible situation, and the following day no one believes her. She finds herself outcast and among all the people she herself outcast - and surprise, surprise everyone hates her or thinks she's got what was coming to her.

This story isn't nice or pretty and it's far from sweet. There are struggles and emotions not only for Regina and other characters, but for the reader as well.

I saw Regina as someone who had to further develop her tough skin to deal with the day to day problems she had to face as she went back to school. And many of those problems were horrible for anyone to have to deal with, especially if you had to deal with them alone. Throughout the story it was sometimes even hard for me to feel sorry for her as stories from how she treated others came out.

She attempts to seek solace with a fellow outcast who sits alone each day at lunch. Their relationship, if you could call it that is very push and pull... rocky to say the least. Seeing both their struggles to come to terms with various things gave such a dark and disturbing story a bit of light and strength. Regina had to learn the hard way that saying you’re sorry to someone you've wronged won't solve everything in the blink of an eye.

The emotions I felt while reading this book really made me think of how we treat others throughout life. How people can be cruel and just not care. The only thing I can say that I didn't like about this book is how blind and absent the adults were. I felt that Anna and all the others who did such horrible things should have had something coming to them in some form of punishment and that the ending was just a tad rushed. None of this took away from the story, just something I observed while reading.

This is my first book by Summers and it won't be my last. I have Cracked Up To Be sitting in my to be read pile and I’m looking forward to that and more. If you’re thinking about picking this book up, do it. It’s well worth the read. Enjoy!

FTC Disclaimer: I DID pay for this book and have NOT been compensated at all in any way or means for reading and writing this review.