Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone is a young adult fiction novel featuring the main character, Samantha McAllister. Samantha “Sam” is part of the popular girls’ group at her high school, dressing in fancy, cute outfits, eating the right types of lunches, and having crushes on the cutest and popular guys in the school. She has to do all this, or else, her “best friends” will turn toxic and exclude her from their group. Sam also has another secret that no one outside her family knows of; she has purely- obsessional OCD and visits a psychiatrist once every week. Soon, she meets a new girl in her school, Caroline Madsen, and the two quickly become close friends. Even though Caroline is the polar opposite of Sam’s friends, Sam feels more like herself around Caroline. Soon, Caroline introduces Sam to a secret place called Poet’s Corner where she finds peace amongst an odd group of people. Sam is instantly drawn to them and starts feeling more like herself than she has in years, and even develops a close connection with one of the boys. Just then, something happens that makes her question the past few months of her life as well as her sanity.
This book was an enjoyable read. It is so well written, and Sam’s character is so well portrayed that I felt like I was along with her the whole time and going through the same experiences as her. One place where I think the author could have improved was conveying Sam’s feelings, especially when she has or starts to have her panic attacks because I think that was played down too much. The story line is also a very sweet one; the classic high school clique and romance story has been given a twist. Nothing is too over dramatized, which are the kind of books I personally like. Overall, it was a great read, hence 4 stars.