Let’s jump right in, shall we?
Here’s the cover description:
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.
What drew me to this one was the
poetry angle. I love reading poetry, I love writing poetry, I love reading about poetry. I didn’t really think
about the OCD side of it much, kind of shrugging my shoulders and telling
myself, “Well you liked that TV series ‘Monk.’ Maybe this will be like that."
Spoiler: It’s not. The ‘Pure-O’ (as it’s called) OCD is VERY different from the
stereotype of OCD I was familiar with and it kind of unsettled me, primarily
because of how much I identified with it. I’m an overthinker. Pure-O is
overthinking on steroids. It’s being obsessed, uncontrollably consumed by
something. It’s ‘thought spirals,’ as Sam calls them, where one thoughts leads
to another, which leads to another, which leads to another – sometimes
rationally, sometimes not, and always consuming and destructive. Thoughts that
snowball and take hold to the point she has perpetual insomnia because her mind
never stops thinking. At times, it did not make for a comfortable read. But it
made for an interesting read.
Let me ask you something. “Raise
your hand if you have ever felt personally victimized by Regina George.” Over
and over as Sam was spending time with her girl"friends", that was all I could
think of – the 2004 film Mean Girls.
It didn’t quite go as far as “On Wednesdays we wear pink,” but very nearly.
Now, I like Mean Girls. It absolutely
cracks me up. But the difference is that was a comedy. This is definitely not.
And where Mean Girls makes me laugh,
this had me really annoyed at times that Sam would put up with their cattiness and even cruelty. I’m
sorry, but at a certain point self-respect and respect for others trumps
comfort and demands that you change a situation.
Granted, Sam did finally snap out
of it, but the popular cheerleader types grate on my nerves very badly, so it
seemed to take awfully long. Do I wish it had happened sooner? Actually…no. It
took forever, yes. But it also fit
Sam’s character growth. Because she did actually grow. In so many Young Adult
novels, that never happens. The main character changes, yes. But for the
better? Not usually. But Sam did. She confronted her past, admitting that she
had been wrong, that she had become someone she didn’t really want to be and
that she needed to change. She changed, and she changed her life.
I also appreciated the male lead,
AJ. He was different from most of the males I’ve read lately in YA. He actually
wasn’t a mysterious, brooding emo! Imagine that! He was kind, forgiving in the
face of great hurt, interested in people other than himself and his girlfriend.
Actually, a really nice, decent guy. It was a really pleasant surprise and
stood out refreshingly from some of the others I’ve read recently. Along with an unusual male lead, there was also an extremely unusual parental relationship. Sam actually (are you sitting down?) had a good relationship with her parents! Sarcasm aside, I loved the fact that for once a YA novel didn't have either the dopey-dad or the meanie-mom stereotypes. Her parents love her, take care of her, and she actually even likes them. This is unfortunately rare in YA these days, and earned this book major brownie points.
The poetry angle did not
disappoint. The vividness with which Stone wrote about the characters writing
was really neat (confusing, I know). And it did what I needed it to, which was
to remind me how much I love writing/reading poetry and encourage me to get
back to it again. It’s been too long. Thank you, Ms. Stone.
What really stood out to me though
was the way the plot came full circle. Elements of the story reminded me very
much of Made You Up, but where Made You Up was a fairly linear story
that ended, Every Last Word comes
completely full circle and shows with amazing clarity where it all began, even before Sam 'hit the scene'. It’s
hard to explain without giving too much away, but let’s put it this way: I
unfortunately found out a major spoiler ahead of time, and the ending still really impressed me, and even
moved me. The writing style and plotting both showed the marks of a really
excellent writer.
All that said, I have to add a
caveat. It was an excellent YA novel. But it wasn’t terribly different from
other YA stories like this that I’ve read. Better than most, yes. But still very
typical. The populars versus the misfits, the smattering of language, the one
requisite make out scene, the same high school I think I’ve read a dozen times.
BUT if you enjoy these sub-genre of YA, this is definitely one to add to your list, because as I
said it is quite good, and has a few things that were unique (the male lead, the full circle plot, etc.). It was quite the breath of fresh air and I know I
enjoyed it very much.
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