Title: Every Last Word
Author: Tamara Ireland Stone
Series or standalone: Standalone
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Publication Date: 16th June 2015
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley (Disney Hyperion)
Goodreads
"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.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for this review copy!
This book was phenomenal. It was one of the best young adult contemporaries that I've read that deals with mental illness. The main character, Sam, has OCD which is an anxiety disorder. I suffer from an anxiety disorder too, so I really wanted to read this and see how I could connect with it and how well Tamara Ireland Stone portrayed it. I have to say, she did this fantastically. You really get a feel for what it's like to go through her mental disorder and I think people who don't suffer from mental illness firsthand will really get to see what it's like and the effects that it can have on a person, their life and the people around them.
I was honestly hooked from the start. It had a plot-line that kept me completely engaged the entire time and the romance was portrayed so realistically and was so swoon-worthy it had me smiling to myself while I was reading. I just think that the romance is so real and fun to read about and it was perfectly paced. The characters were all great! I loved her psychologist and the poetry group and everyone in it so much! I just felt for them all and felt like I was friends with them too by the end! I also loved how poetry was incorporated into the novel. It was done wonderfully and the poems were all so unique and different and lovely.
The only criticism I have for this book is that there is a HUGE absence of Sam's family. They appear a couple of times, but other than that, I don't know anything about them at all! I really wanted them to be fleshed out a lot more because I feel as though they played a huge role in helping Sam through everything (especially at the start and end of the novel, as well as before the events in the novel even happen.)
Other than that, what a beautiful, engaging and inspiring novel. Absolutely adored it! 5 stars!
"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.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for this review copy!
This book was phenomenal. It was one of the best young adult contemporaries that I've read that deals with mental illness. The main character, Sam, has OCD which is an anxiety disorder. I suffer from an anxiety disorder too, so I really wanted to read this and see how I could connect with it and how well Tamara Ireland Stone portrayed it. I have to say, she did this fantastically. You really get a feel for what it's like to go through her mental disorder and I think people who don't suffer from mental illness firsthand will really get to see what it's like and the effects that it can have on a person, their life and the people around them.
I was honestly hooked from the start. It had a plot-line that kept me completely engaged the entire time and the romance was portrayed so realistically and was so swoon-worthy it had me smiling to myself while I was reading. I just think that the romance is so real and fun to read about and it was perfectly paced. The characters were all great! I loved her psychologist and the poetry group and everyone in it so much! I just felt for them all and felt like I was friends with them too by the end! I also loved how poetry was incorporated into the novel. It was done wonderfully and the poems were all so unique and different and lovely.
The only criticism I have for this book is that there is a HUGE absence of Sam's family. They appear a couple of times, but other than that, I don't know anything about them at all! I really wanted them to be fleshed out a lot more because I feel as though they played a huge role in helping Sam through everything (especially at the start and end of the novel, as well as before the events in the novel even happen.)
Other than that, what a beautiful, engaging and inspiring novel. Absolutely adored it! 5 stars!
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