Her popular friends will never understand her OCD, she knows this for sure, because one wrong move and she would be kicked off her pedestal. She reminded me of Lydia Martin from Teen Wolf, pretending to be someone else to be loved, out of fear of not being understood. Although she is popular and has tons of friends, she hides behind the facade of her popularity to mask her pain. She’s different from other main characters I’ve read about in typical High School books. As someone who suffers with a few of the types of OCD (Intrusive Thoughts related), Social Anxiety and previous Depression, I was reeled into Sam’s story. There are many kinds of OCD that vary from mind-to-mind, so it’s always an intricate thing to get just right. In Every Last Word, Tamara does capture what it’s like inside the mind of someone with purely-obsessional OCD. Nowadays, it’s very much required that an author does very thorough research into the illness before writing about it, because otherwise it’s not portrayed as lifelike as it should be. The thing about books that touch upon OCD and other illnesses alike, is that they tend to be very hit-and-miss. *Firstly, if you are triggered by any kind of talk about OCD and Anxiety or Depression, please be cautioned that this review talks about all three of these things, because they relate to the theme of the book.* until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.

Slowly, she begins to feel more “normal” than she ever has as part of the popular crowd.

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. 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.Ĭaroline 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. Yet Sam knows she’d be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. 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. 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.

Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. If you could read my mind, you wouldn’t be smiling. As always, my reviews are fair and unbiased. Disclosure: TRIGGER WARNING* (read below).

Every last word book