Every Last WordAuthor: Tamara Ireland Stone
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion, 368 pages
Publication Date: June 16, 2015
From Goodreads:
Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off.
Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn't help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she'd be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist.
Caroline introduces Sam to Poet's Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Sam is drawn to them immediately, especially a guitar-playing guy with a talent for verse, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more "normal" than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.
Review:
What I Liked:
1. The whole figuring out who you are, what's important to you, what it means to be a true friend…Sam grows up a lot in this book.
2. Poet's Corner and the importance of words. Obviously, being a reader, I love this.
3. AJ. He's a good guy, cute but not gorgeous, slightly scruffy. He plays guitar and writes songs. He's honest, says what he thinks. No playing games. At all. More guys like AJ please!
4. Relationship between AJ and Sam. So sweet!
5. Seemingly realistic depiction of OCD with a great relationship between Sam and her psychiatrist.
What I didn't like:
There's one thing that happens in the book that I didn't buy. It seemed to be there just for cleverness or shock value and I would have liked the book even more without it. I can't say more without spoiling it, but e-mail me if you want to discuss!
Every Last Word is a beautifully written book about mental illness, love, and friendship. I really enjoyed it.
Posted by: Pam
I'm pretty intrigued by mental illness so that makes me intrigued about this book. I'm just not sure if I feel like I need to read this one. I'm just not sure, great review otherwise!
ReplyDeleteI looooved AJ. He's been one of my favorite book boys this year. <3 I wish there were more guys like him in YA!
ReplyDeleteI thought the twist was effective, but worked better in another book I read this year.
I am looking forward to reading this book! I liked the authors other books, so I will definitely be getting into this one as soon as I can.
ReplyDeleteI plan to read this at some point because so many people seem to really like it and now i'm curious as to what that one thing is!
ReplyDeleteI really loved this book. I thought it was such an accurate and realistic display of OCD and I wish there were more books like this out there. I loved the romance, thought it was adorable, but I do agree with you on the thing. It felt out of place and like the story could have done without.
ReplyDelete