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Melanie's Reviews > Every Last Word
Every Last Word
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Melanie's review
bookshelves: books-i-own, e-arc, young-adult, romance, not-bad-at-all, omg-the-cover-people, i-cried, contemporary
Jan 05, 2015
bookshelves: books-i-own, e-arc, young-adult, romance, not-bad-at-all, omg-the-cover-people, i-cried, contemporary
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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 when I was a few chapters into the novel. Why? Because most of my friends gave this book 4 or 5 stars and there was I, reading along thinking that this was one of the worst books I've ever read on mental illnesses. And the main reason of that was because I HATE Sam (the main character)'s so called friends. They're the 'popular' and 'I-think-I'm-prettier-than-all-of-you' girls at school and every girl hates them and every guy loves them. Yeah, that kinda group. Hellooo, high school social hierarchy. Anyway, Sam's friends pissed me off. Majorly. So much that I was ready to just give up on the book altogether. Within their little posse, the 'main girl', Alexis (of course that's her name <.<), has basically created her own social ladder amongst the 4 other girls she calls her best friends.
I actually find it comical how stupidly shallow their friendship is. It's so fake and well, childish.Â
In short, Alexis had to choose 2 of her 4 friends to go to the spa with because her mom only got 3 reservations, so Alexis decides to choose the two girls she was best friends with first. And, since all of them met each other at the same time, Alexis chooses the two girls whose mums were friends with first instead. WHAT. THE. FUCK. If I only got three reservations to the spa and had more than that many close friends, I'd ditch the spa and go someplace else because friends > going to some fancy pants spa.
Surprisingly enough, this book did a 180 spin soon later and progressively got better. Sure, Sam still had these hella annoying and fake friends, but I started to get over that because we see less of them the more involved Sam becomes with her new friends. I particularly love Caroline, who is just such a supportive friend and funky girl that wears the best t-shirts. She also suffers from depression, though I personally would have liked to look into that a little more (but I totally get why the author did not). (view spoiler)
In terms of the romance, I am really torn about it. AJ is really weary about Sam during the first half of this book because back in 4th grade, she and her 'friends' bullied AJ so bad that he feared his own name and had speech problems. If you know me, you know I love, love, LOVE the hate to love romance trope when executed correctly and well, this one just didn't give me the feels I was told I was gonna get. While I can see how AJ and Sam's relationship works, I just don't ship it hard.
I think Every Last Word is a very important novel to read. Sure, it's not too promising starting off, but by the end of the book, I can definitely say I knew a lot more about OCD than I started off with. It opened my eyes to see the whole spectrum of OCD - there isn't just one type and there are subcategories. I definitely recommend to read the acknowledgements for this book. I got a little teary just from that, and I love how much effort and dedication Stone took to make this story as genuine as possible. And she did a pretty damn good job, in the end.
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 when I was a few chapters into the novel. Why? Because most of my friends gave this book 4 or 5 stars and there was I, reading along thinking that this was one of the worst books I've ever read on mental illnesses. And the main reason of that was because I HATE Sam (the main character)'s so called friends. They're the 'popular' and 'I-think-I'm-prettier-than-all-of-you' girls at school and every girl hates them and every guy loves them. Yeah, that kinda group. Hellooo, high school social hierarchy. Anyway, Sam's friends pissed me off. Majorly. So much that I was ready to just give up on the book altogether. Within their little posse, the 'main girl', Alexis (of course that's her name <.<), has basically created her own social ladder amongst the 4 other girls she calls her best friends.
"Not Hailey. You." [Alexis] pokes my collarbone. And now I know precisely where I reside on her social ladder: Second rung from the bottom. Hailey occupies the last one, and as soon as she learns I'm invited to Alexis's birthday and she's not, she'll know it too.
I actually find it comical how stupidly shallow their friendship is. It's so fake and well, childish.Â
"You have no idea how sad I've been, Samantha. I felt horrible not asking you. Even though our moms weren't friends in preschool, you and I were best friends in kindergarten!"
In short, Alexis had to choose 2 of her 4 friends to go to the spa with because her mom only got 3 reservations, so Alexis decides to choose the two girls she was best friends with first. And, since all of them met each other at the same time, Alexis chooses the two girls whose mums were friends with first instead. WHAT. THE. FUCK. If I only got three reservations to the spa and had more than that many close friends, I'd ditch the spa and go someplace else because friends > going to some fancy pants spa.
Surprisingly enough, this book did a 180 spin soon later and progressively got better. Sure, Sam still had these hella annoying and fake friends, but I started to get over that because we see less of them the more involved Sam becomes with her new friends. I particularly love Caroline, who is just such a supportive friend and funky girl that wears the best t-shirts. She also suffers from depression, though I personally would have liked to look into that a little more (but I totally get why the author did not). (view spoiler)
In terms of the romance, I am really torn about it. AJ is really weary about Sam during the first half of this book because back in 4th grade, she and her 'friends' bullied AJ so bad that he feared his own name and had speech problems. If you know me, you know I love, love, LOVE the hate to love romance trope when executed correctly and well, this one just didn't give me the feels I was told I was gonna get. While I can see how AJ and Sam's relationship works, I just don't ship it hard.
I think Every Last Word is a very important novel to read. Sure, it's not too promising starting off, but by the end of the book, I can definitely say I knew a lot more about OCD than I started off with. It opened my eyes to see the whole spectrum of OCD - there isn't just one type and there are subcategories. I definitely recommend to read the acknowledgements for this book. I got a little teary just from that, and I love how much effort and dedication Stone took to make this story as genuine as possible. And she did a pretty damn good job, in the end.
~Thank you Disney Hyperion for the review copy!~
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Reading Progress
January 5, 2015
– Shelved
June 6, 2015
–
Started Reading
June 10, 2015
–
Finished Reading
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Agree with you on the romance. There was so much else going on that I don't think it got developed enough. Have you read Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers? That has a similar h-t-l set-up and is a favorite of mine.
Naruto4Hokage(Jessica) wrote: "I'm so glad you read this!!! I personally LOVED it and 100% love AJ with Sam!Caroline, though..."
Yeah, sad I didn't love it as much as you though!
Jen wrote: "Agree with you on the romance. There was so much else going on that I don't think it got developed enough. Have you read Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers? That has a similar h-t-l set-up and is a..."Yes omg I have. Now that was just so so perfect.
I think that while you're right about the friendship thing, I do think that that's kind of the point. The point of the characters is that they're toxic and sam needs to let go of them, but I do see your point.
Caroline, though...