Samantha McAllister has a secret, one she keeps hidden
from even her closest friends. Sam is popular, part of
the Crazy Eights clique, but daily she struggles with her
obsessions. Sam is diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder (OCD) and regularly sees a therapist. A new
friend enters her life and suddenly Sam finds herself
sharing things with Caroline Madsen that Sam has told no
one else. Caroline introduces Sam to the Poet's Corner
and Sam's whole world changes. How will Sam handle the
change?
Tamara Ireland Stone does an amazing job at sensitively
portraying a teenager coping with a mental illness. From
the social stigma to the very real fears that her
obsessions could overtake her, Sam shows us the inner
battle that someone coping with OCD faces on a daily
basis. I love the Author's Note, both for the inspiration
for the story as well as for the resources and additional
information Tamara Ireland Stone conveys about OCD.
While the main storyline focuses on Sam's OCD, bullying
is also an integral aspect of the story. Tamara Ireland
Stone shows us the negative effects of bullying and the
many shades it can appear in, from the obvious to the
more subtle forms of social exclusion. It's difficult to
step outside the boundaries of a clique, and Tamara
Ireland Stone paints a very realistic portrait of the
struggle Sam faces, both internally and externally, as
she debates changes in her life.
The Poet's Corner sounds like such a sanctuary and place
of affirmation, something that Sam desperately needs at
this time in her life. I love each and every character
Sam meets there, but most especially AJ. The fun poems
about food made me smile, even as some of the other poems
address deeper fears and issues faced by the teenagers in
Poet's Corner. The Crazy Eights, on the other hand, are a
little more difficult to handle as we watch the emotional
devastation they cause with their drama. However, I
particularly like Sam's therapist, Sue, as I appreciate
seeing a mental health therapist shown in both an
appropriate and helpful role.
EVERY LAST WORD just takes my breath away, even now days
after finishing it. EVERY LAST WORD is the sort of book
that I just can't recommend highly enough, as teenagers
especially need to read this story! If you read just one
young adult book in your life, make it EVERY LAST WORD as
Tamara Ireland Stone has written an emotionally heart-
wrenching and absolutely beautiful gem of a novel.
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.
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