I ate it up, and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way, but I do think people will notice this. While Every Last Word deals with a lot of tough topics, and does it quite well, there is an overall sense of sweetness to the whole thing.

Now I have to admit that this is pretty much a fairy-tale in the way that it's told. Dealing with all of this only makes it harder. Highschool is a tough enough place anyway. How do you be the perfectly put together popular girl, and secretly harbor dark and obsessive thoughts? How do you keep a pristine outer shell, and hide the fact that every moment of every day is filled with keeping your true self hidden? I felt for her. I fell for Samantha pretty hard once I recognized her dilemma. A pretty girl, with a loving family, a popular set of friends, and Purely-Obsessional OCD. This is the story of Samantha McAllister. I'll warn you now that when you pick this up, you should definitely have some tissues handy. I found myself completely caught up in this book from the moment I finished the first page. Acceptance not just from the people around you, but from yourself. It deals with OCD, with what real friendship is, and even with acceptance. Tamara Ireland Stone has written an amazing book.

Or at the very least, I need to always have sunglasses to hide my weepy eyes. I really need to learn not to read books like Every Last Word on the train ride to work. until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear. Slowly, she begins to feel more “normal” than she ever has as part of the popular crowd. 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. 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.Ĭaroline introduces Sam to the Poet’s Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large. Yet Sam knows she’d be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. 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. 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. Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. If you could read my mind, you wouldn’t be smiling.

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone