Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone
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Web ID: 14352668Absolutely love
This book is my favourite book at the moment. Never truly knew what was going to happen and gave a very good insight into what it is actually like to have OCD. Read it at least 10 times
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
AMAZING
lovvveeeedddd this book so much, i physically could not put it down i finished it in two days it was amazing
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
wonderful book
When i read the back I was a little skeptical about it, but a friend had suggested it, giving in I started to read it, giving it a chance. I instantly fell in love, and I finished it in one sitting, this book definitely spoke to me. I've been telling all my friends about this, constantly recommending it.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Relatable
I’ve never sat and read a book in one sitting, this book had me hooked and I felt like I can relate to Sam McAllisters situation. The way she felt about her disorder and how she felt she couldn’t tell any of her friends because she thought she was crazy. The way in certain situations she felt as if she were going to breakdown and have a panic attack, or anxiety attack, the way she overthought situations when really it was something little. I love how this book felt so real and such a relatable topic. Even if I don’t have the disorder she has in the book, I still feel as if I could relate to her about certain topics, and I can relate to the strategy she used to cope. Such an amazing book, I really do recommend it..
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
AMAZING
so good & kept me interested the entire time
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
This book was amazing
I bought this book to read for a class assignment and I completely fell in love with it. I bawled my eyes just reading this book. This story helped me get out of a reading-slump.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
I loved it!
This book helped me get out of my reading slump. The character development was amazing! I loved how new and old friendships, romance, while dealing with mental health is all intertwined into a beautiful book. Also, the unexpected plot twist, amazing!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Good start, poor ending, bad disability rep
I had a really fun time reading the first half/three-quarters of Every Last Word. The writing was compelling, the characters enjoyable, and the romance adorable. I'd describe the plot as Brenna Yovanoff's Paper Valentine meets Clueless. One member of a group of mean girls wants to change herself but is too afraid of her friends' reactions, but something gives her a chance to find her own interests and make new, nicer friends. Plus, she has OCD! I seem to love that mean girl trope, and I definitely enjoyed reading about the teenage girl drama. (Much more preferable than living through it, or having to supervise it!) Unfortunately, Sam's big reveal, which the book's summary calls, "...a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear,“ fell into the cliche that so many stories about mental health or chronic illness seem to fall into. If you regularly read or look for disability representation, you're probably familiar with the type: instead of being a story where a girl with OCD tries to break away from her toxic friend group, it became a story where a girl with toxic friends struggles with OCD. Except it isn't even a symptom of OCD that she turns out to be experiencing. Spoiler Sam hallucinated her new best friend, the one who encouraged her to make new friends, break away from the Crazy Eights (the mean girls, and really, what an interesting name to appear in a book about mental illness), and stop hiding her OCD from her friends. End spoiler. I saw the twist coming, and kudos to the author for foreshadowing it well. I just hate it. If the big, climactic disaster had to be about Sam's mental health instead of her friends, which was certainly a strong enough plotline to stand on its own, I had imagined it would have to do with her current treatment regime no longer working, or someone finding out about her OCD/therapy and spilling the beans before Sam was ready, causing social issues at school and increasing her stress, perhaps leading to unsafe behavior on her part in an effort to be "normal.“ etc. Not cheap shock value. To add to things, after the big twist, the ending is wrapped up in a neat little bow where Sam suddenly has a near-perfect grip on her OCD. Another trope that people seem to love in stories, but that's rarely how it works in real life. Taking the Hollywood-drama-trope copouts weakened the ending and moved the focus away from where I felt it was supposed to be: Sam's relationships with the people around her. Spoiler The real people, that is. End spoiler. I really wanted to like this book all the way to the end. But while I can't speak for the OCD portrayal, I do not recommend this book to anyone looking for genuine, cathartic representation. I know how I feel when I encounter this same trope in stories that do portray one of the illnesses I have, and it's not a good feeling.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com