Title: Every Last Word
Author: Tamara Ireland Stone
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Release Date: June 16th, 2015
Goodreads Summary: If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling.
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
"But I think you meant what you said in that poem. Did you?"It takes effort, but I sit up straight and look right at her. "Every last word."
On BookTube, a lot of people read this as an ARC and did giveaways for it. I didn't know if I was ever going to read it at that time, few weeks ago. This book completely took me by surprise. I like contemporary books, but I've never read one dealing with mental illness before. However, I had the feeling I could relate to Sam - mostly because my little brother has similar issues.
Every last word is the story of a girl who has a perfect life on the outside : popular friends, family, swimming practice, but she struggles to keep it together, because she has OCD. Her new school year shows her evolving a lot, developing new friendships and finally, finding her place.
This room changed her life. And it's just beginning to change mine.
Even if this book resolves around our main character, Sam, there are some side stories, for example Emily's (I cried so much) or Cameron. In the beginning, Sam can seem self-centered (which can be related to her group of friends), not knowing the names of persons that have been in her classes for a while, but she starts to care about others, in fact, she grows up.
Tears are rolling down my cheeks, because my heart is breaking for a girl I didn't even know three months ago.
The romance was obvious but I liked the way it was built up, it didn't feel rushed, even if it happened two-thirds in.
There were also really funny parts, just check this out :
"And instead of heading off to the bathroom to change it like I normally would, I told her that her blush was too heavy and she looked like a mime."
"Well, if she looked like a mime, it makes perfect sense that she's not speaking to you", he says.
Of course the poetry took a large spot in this book and I loved it so much, especially Abigail's "As if", which summed up a lot of high school students experiences. By the way, the characters weren't seniors but juniors, it changed, for once.
To conclude, this book is one of my favorite contemporary books of this year, it touched my soul and I cried a lot, I will keep this story in my heart for a long time.
Rating : 5/5
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