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Every Last Word
by
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.
S ...more
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.
S ...more
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Hardcover, 358 pages
Published
June 16th 2015
by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
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Tamara Stone
My publisher recommends it for readers 12 and up.
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Start your review of Every Last Word

This book is a saccharine sweet fairy tale version of a very real mental illness, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), as well as the very serious issue of bullying, without true emotional depth. It's the equivalent of ordering a black coffee at Starbucks, taking a sip, only to find out that you've been given a caramel mocha instead. It is unrealistic, it is a Disney-fied version of real life, complete with a happy ending.
Real life doesn't work that way. Mental illnesses don't work that way. I k ...more
Real life doesn't work that way. Mental illnesses don't work that way. I k ...more

FINALLY! A mental health book with excellent rep. I'm so...I'm so freaking emotional right now?! This was incredible and you could feel the realism, the love, and the respect on every page. It also totally highlights how having a mental illness can be devastating, but noooo it doesn't have to ruin your life. Your brain being different isn't crazy or broken or wrong and I just...
thankkkkk you to this book for existing. I feel like I've read so many crappy reps of mental illness lately it's just e ...more
thankkkkk you to this book for existing. I feel like I've read so many crappy reps of mental illness lately it's just e ...more

this book is sooo me. i loved it when i first read it a few years ago, and i love it even more now. down to every last word.
as someone with a psychology background, i have to praise TIS for her very real portrayal of OCD. i cant even begin to tell you how often people are misinformed about the disorder or how debilitating common misconceptions of OCD can be. i really admire how the story was inspired by someone close to TIS who has the disorder, because it makes its representation so personal an ...more
as someone with a psychology background, i have to praise TIS for her very real portrayal of OCD. i cant even begin to tell you how often people are misinformed about the disorder or how debilitating common misconceptions of OCD can be. i really admire how the story was inspired by someone close to TIS who has the disorder, because it makes its representation so personal an ...more

i cried for nearly the entire last fifty pages and i can't even tell you why. it's not even sad?? this book is just really beautiful and very well done and so important. i need to go wipe my nose.
...more

*I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
What a beautiful book. . Definitely one of the best contemporary books I've read this year. Sam's story was so moving and my heart was honestly pounding towards the end. This book touches on some really serious topics like depression, anxiety, and mental disorders, but I thought that Tamara Ireland Stone did it beautifully. One of my favorite parts (which was a huge part) was the poetry in this book. This is the type of bo ...more
What a beautiful book. . Definitely one of the best contemporary books I've read this year. Sam's story was so moving and my heart was honestly pounding towards the end. This book touches on some really serious topics like depression, anxiety, and mental disorders, but I thought that Tamara Ireland Stone did it beautifully. One of my favorite parts (which was a huge part) was the poetry in this book. This is the type of bo ...more

Nov 16, 2019
Warda
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Warda by:
Nadhira Satria
Shelves:
mental-health,
i-fell-in-love
Books on mental health hit me in a way no other story does. It’s personal and intimate and I’m seen and understood in a way I want to be seen and understood.
It’s even better when these stories include therapy sessions and showcase the positive impact they can have. A good therapist can do that.
It’s made me want to read more books on mental health and become more of an advocate for it.
This particular story deals with OCD alongside anxiety. I didn’t know much about this book going into it and I ...more
It’s even better when these stories include therapy sessions and showcase the positive impact they can have. A good therapist can do that.
It’s made me want to read more books on mental health and become more of an advocate for it.
This particular story deals with OCD alongside anxiety. I didn’t know much about this book going into it and I ...more

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 ...more
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 ...more

Here is my full, spoiler free review for this book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlekVG... it was absolutely amazing and I hope everyone gives this beautiful story a chance x
I received a free copy of this book from Disney Hyperion in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. ...more
I received a free copy of this book from Disney Hyperion in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. ...more

Hm. Really interesting look at a teen with OCD. I'm not entirely sure everything the book tried to tackle actually worked--there's a lot going on here--but there is an interesting twist, and the story kept my interest overall.
More thinking required on this one.
...more
More thinking required on this one.
...more

O.M.G. this book, I loved it, like legit loved it. It starts out odd, but I think that’s just because I wasn’t really sure what I was getting into, but once I got into it I fell in love!
Samantha McAlister is one of the most popular girls in school, from the outside looking in her life is perfect. She is pretty, intelligent, and friends with the right people. No one knows she suffers from OCD, which is real a ...more
“Everyone’s got something. Some people are just better actors than others.”
Samantha McAlister is one of the most popular girls in school, from the outside looking in her life is perfect. She is pretty, intelligent, and friends with the right people. No one knows she suffers from OCD, which is real a ...more

Re read!!! Buddy read with Warda who I’ll tag soon when I’m on my laptop
OH WOW OH WOW THIS WAS AMAZING
YALL MY MENTAL ILLNESS IS BEING REPRESENTED BY THIS BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL BOOK. I have never relate so much to a book and I honestly just want to cry.
This book honestly has the best pure o rep I’ve ever read and I feel so represented like it’s such an amazing pure ocd rep. I can relate to Sam so much with her struggles with her pure O. The best part of this book is the fact that her ocd wasn’t c ...more
OH WOW OH WOW THIS WAS AMAZING
YALL MY MENTAL ILLNESS IS BEING REPRESENTED BY THIS BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL BOOK. I have never relate so much to a book and I honestly just want to cry.
This book honestly has the best pure o rep I’ve ever read and I feel so represented like it’s such an amazing pure ocd rep. I can relate to Sam so much with her struggles with her pure O. The best part of this book is the fact that her ocd wasn’t c ...more

FINALLLYYYYY on sale!!! Go buy it!!! NOOOW! Click HERE to purchase
If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling.
Sometimes a book just calls to you. Sometimes it consumes your every waking thought until you can finally pick it up. Sometimes.....when you get an opportunity to read a book before anyone else you realize just how lucky you are, because you just knew from the moment you saw it that it was going to be special, perfect, just what you've been dying to read. That's exactly how I ...more
If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling.
Sometimes a book just calls to you. Sometimes it consumes your every waking thought until you can finally pick it up. Sometimes.....when you get an opportunity to read a book before anyone else you realize just how lucky you are, because you just knew from the moment you saw it that it was going to be special, perfect, just what you've been dying to read. That's exactly how I ...more

4 stars!
4 stars for my 4th YA book of the year!
Every Last Word is a story about a teenage girl who is dealing with OCD. Samantha McAllister appears to be perfect on the outside, but inside she's a mess. She constantly worries about her friends finding out about her condition and the fact that she sees a psychiatrist. When Sam meets Caroline and gets introduced to the kids in Poet's Corner, everything changes for her. She finds herself coming out of her shell and embracing who she is.
Saman ...more

4 stars for my 4th YA book of the year!
Every Last Word is a story about a teenage girl who is dealing with OCD. Samantha McAllister appears to be perfect on the outside, but inside she's a mess. She constantly worries about her friends finding out about her condition and the fact that she sees a psychiatrist. When Sam meets Caroline and gets introduced to the kids in Poet's Corner, everything changes for her. She finds herself coming out of her shell and embracing who she is.
Saman ...more

(Source: I received a digital copy of this book for free on a read-to-review basis. Thanks to Disney Book Group and NetGalley.)
“My friends can’t know about my OCD or the debilitating, uncontrollable thoughts, because my friends are normal. And perfect. They pride themselves on normalcy and perfection, and they can’t ever find out how far I am from those two things.”

This was a YA story about a girl with OCD.
I felt quite sorry for Sam in this story, her friends obviously made her feel quite aw ...more
“My friends can’t know about my OCD or the debilitating, uncontrollable thoughts, because my friends are normal. And perfect. They pride themselves on normalcy and perfection, and they can’t ever find out how far I am from those two things.”

This was a YA story about a girl with OCD.
I felt quite sorry for Sam in this story, her friends obviously made her feel quite aw ...more

4 stars!
“If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling.”

Every Last Word is the story of Sam, a teenage girl with a debilitating case of OCD. Not the kind like you and I think, where it's like people keeping things nice and neat, but one that messes with her sense of reality. One of the popular girls at school, she is forever in fear of her group of friends finding out her secret and ridiculing her for it.
One day she discovers a new group of people at school she never really noticed be ...more
“If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling.”

Every Last Word is the story of Sam, a teenage girl with a debilitating case of OCD. Not the kind like you and I think, where it's like people keeping things nice and neat, but one that messes with her sense of reality. One of the popular girls at school, she is forever in fear of her group of friends finding out her secret and ridiculing her for it.
One day she discovers a new group of people at school she never really noticed be ...more

3.5 Stars!!
I don’t know what I expected reading this book, but I expected something a little different. It wasn’t the best book I’ve read with this premise, but it wasn’t the worst either. Honestly I expected something more emotional and/or more moving. Needless to say the author failed (a little) to keep me truly invested in the story. It was a good story, like my rating says, but it could have been much better if it would have been longer.
“Every Last Word” is the story of Samantha ‘Sam’, a gi ...more
I don’t know what I expected reading this book, but I expected something a little different. It wasn’t the best book I’ve read with this premise, but it wasn’t the worst either. Honestly I expected something more emotional and/or more moving. Needless to say the author failed (a little) to keep me truly invested in the story. It was a good story, like my rating says, but it could have been much better if it would have been longer.
“Every Last Word” is the story of Samantha ‘Sam’, a gi ...more

4.5 stars
Such an unexpected powerful and moving read. I’m still forcing these foreign lumps in my throat back in as I’m writing this review. I have read countless books on mental illness but I find this book very exceptional because of the constructive and encouraging way the author portrayed a teenage girl with OCD. I appreciate so much the relationship between Sam and her psychiatrist, even involving Sam’s mom in actually contributing with her therapy at home. I love that their talk therapy s ...more
Such an unexpected powerful and moving read. I’m still forcing these foreign lumps in my throat back in as I’m writing this review. I have read countless books on mental illness but I find this book very exceptional because of the constructive and encouraging way the author portrayed a teenage girl with OCD. I appreciate so much the relationship between Sam and her psychiatrist, even involving Sam’s mom in actually contributing with her therapy at home. I love that their talk therapy s ...more

I think everyone who thinks it's okay to throw about the term 'OCD' when they talk about how they like a clean bedroom should read this book. YA fiction based around the reality of mental illness at its finest.
See my full video review here: https://youtu.be/36YPI1tqKGU ...more
See my full video review here: https://youtu.be/36YPI1tqKGU ...more

Just wow!! I love this book to pieces! Added to my top reads of 2015. I found so much of myself in Sam and I was sad when her story ended too soon. Everyone needs to grab a copy of this book! You'll be glad you did :)
...more

Jan 05, 2015
Melanie
rated it
liked it
Shelves:
young-adult,
omg-the-cover-people,
romance,
books-i-own,
contemporary,
e-arc,
not-bad-at-all,
i-cried
See more reviews at YA Midnight Reads
3.5 stars
Every Last Word is one of those books that had me wanting to smash it into a pulp from page 1, but had me sniffling a bit during the last few chapters.
This story follows Sam, a girl dealing who was diagnosed with Purely Obsessional OCD (aka Pure-O) at the age of 11. While she may look perfectly fine on the outside, each day she is battling with the uncontrollable thoughts that consume her.
I wasn't quite sure I picked up the same book as everyone else ...more
3.5 stars
Every Last Word is one of those books that had me wanting to smash it into a pulp from page 1, but had me sniffling a bit during the last few chapters.
This story follows Sam, a girl dealing who was diagnosed with Purely Obsessional OCD (aka Pure-O) at the age of 11. While she may look perfectly fine on the outside, each day she is battling with the uncontrollable thoughts that consume her.
I wasn't quite sure I picked up the same book as everyone else ...more

3.5/5 Stars
This was a really great book! I can’t totally speak for the mental illness representation (and I looked for a few reviews but didn’t find much), but it seemed very respectful and well done to me. It didn’t trivialize the issue, the main character had a very supportive family, and had a great therapist she visited regularly. All of those things are usual seen in a negative light so it was great to see them positively here.
The story was entertaining except for one *spoilery* aspect that ...more
This was a really great book! I can’t totally speak for the mental illness representation (and I looked for a few reviews but didn’t find much), but it seemed very respectful and well done to me. It didn’t trivialize the issue, the main character had a very supportive family, and had a great therapist she visited regularly. All of those things are usual seen in a negative light so it was great to see them positively here.
The story was entertaining except for one *spoilery* aspect that ...more

These walls heard
me when no
one else could.
They gave my
words a home,
kept them safe.
Cheered, cried, listened.
Changed my life
for the better.
It wasn’t enough.
But they heard
Every last word.
This is a very surprising book. Look at the glowing reviews because the hype is real.
A lot of us frequently use “OCD” figuratively. Nowadays, “OCD” is synonymous to the word perfectionist, a person who likes things in order, or a person who is neat. We throw this word very lightly, but do we honestly know what it ...more

I really enjoyed this book. I don't normally enjoy contemporaries that take place in a high school setting but this felt different. I will admit that The writing style is fairly simplistic and the narrator often over explains things. But the main character is very endearing and I enjoyed her journey immensely. There was just something sweet about this book and I feel like it would be very helpful for teens struggling with mental health. It reinforces the message that everyone is different and th
...more

www.melissa413readsalot.blogspot.com
I thought this was a damn good book. The ending really took me by surprise, I never saw that one coming, although I knew something seemed a bit weird.
Samantha has OCD since she was a child and is on medication for anxiety. Sam has hidden this fact from her so called friends all of her life. These girls that she grew up with were mean and she was always afraid to pull away from them.
Then one day she meets a really nice girl named Caroline. She takes Sam into ...more
I thought this was a damn good book. The ending really took me by surprise, I never saw that one coming, although I knew something seemed a bit weird.
Samantha has OCD since she was a child and is on medication for anxiety. Sam has hidden this fact from her so called friends all of her life. These girls that she grew up with were mean and she was always afraid to pull away from them.
Then one day she meets a really nice girl named Caroline. She takes Sam into ...more

Jul 30, 2016
Norah Una Sumner
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
4-star-read,
great-male-characters,
loss,
contemporary,
psychology,
young-adult,
2016,
romance
Really loved reading this book. If you liked Made You Up, which is one of my favourite YA books, you're probably going to like this one as well. And vice-versa.

I absolutely devoured this book. Poet's Corner, Sam's development as a human being, the hidden connection between her and AJ, Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist, Caroline... every aspect of this book was extremely interesting and it's just impossible not to be on the edge of your seat when that final revelation comes. It hit me out o ...more

I absolutely devoured this book. Poet's Corner, Sam's development as a human being, the hidden connection between her and AJ, Sam's weekly visits to her psychiatrist, Caroline... every aspect of this book was extremely interesting and it's just impossible not to be on the edge of your seat when that final revelation comes. It hit me out o ...more
topics | posts | views | last activity | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Mental Health Boo...: January fiction- OCD: Every Last Word | 7 | 73 | Jan 31, 2020 08:32PM | |
Favorite character and why? | 7 | 68 | Jun 02, 2019 12:45PM | |
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. A book about a high school girl with mental issues. Spoilers ahead. [s] | 3 | 37 | Mar 27, 2019 05:22PM | |
YA Buddy Readers'...: Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone - Restarting August 19th 2018 | 57 | 177 | Aug 08, 2018 01:20AM |
TAMARA IRELAND STONE spent nearly two decades in the technology industry before she began writing middle grade and young adult fiction. She feels lucky to say she's had two careers she's loved.
Her New York Times bestseller, EVERY LAST WORD, won the Cybils Young Adult Fiction Award, the Georgia Peach Book Award, and was a YALSA Teens' Top Ten pick; LITTLE DO WE KNOW won the NCIBA Golden Poppy Award ...more
Her New York Times bestseller, EVERY LAST WORD, won the Cybils Young Adult Fiction Award, the Georgia Peach Book Award, and was a YALSA Teens' Top Ten pick; LITTLE DO WE KNOW won the NCIBA Golden Poppy Award ...more
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“If you could read my mind, you wouldn't be smiling.”
—
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“Everyone’s got something. Some people are just better actors than others.”
—
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