Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

Every Last Word is the other audio book I finished while reading Outlander.  Every Last Word is the story of popular high school junior, Sam, who is hiding something from her friends.  She has OCD of the purely obsessional variety.  Her every day is a difficult balancing act of pretending everything is fine while, underneath, it's really not.  This isn't a good situation for someone whose friends with the popular girls, complete with the stereotypical meanness.  She is taking medication, swimming helps and she has been seeing a therapist long term, but her social life doesn't lend itself to being able to cope.  Her therapist has been encouraging her to make new friends for a long time, but Sam just can't.  She has no where else to go.

Enter new friend Caroline and her entry into the secret poet's society at her school.  She meets AJ, with whom she has a history that she doesn't at first recall, and other poets who eventually welcome her into their circle.  This gives her the strength to stand up to her popular friends.  This all comes in stages, though, and takes a while.  Not wanting to give anything away, I will say there is also a WTF moment that was...interesting.

I liked this book, but here's the thing...it's the story of if everything went really well.  If you have the best therapist, the most understanding mom, the group of misfit poets just waiting for you to find them.  However, I'll be honest and say that I like it when things work out, so I liked this book.  I like finding your tribe.  I like therapists who are good at their jobs.  I like good parents.  I don't think one or two of these things are unrealistic, but having them all is a stroke of extraordinary good luck. 

Overall, I thought this was a decent handling of OCD and I think it's worth a read.

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