≡ PDF Every Last Word Tamara Ireland Stone 9781484705278 Books

Every Last Word Tamara Ireland Stone 9781484705278 Books

Download As PDF : Every Last Word Tamara Ireland Stone 9781484705278 Books

Every Last Word Tamara Ireland Stone 9781484705278 Books

Every Last Word is not only an endearing love story, it is a fascinating peek into the mind of a girl with OCD. I couldn’t put it down!

The thoughts Sam had, the secrets she kept, the adjustments she had to make every day of her life were truly a struggle for her, and it was amazing to see her journey through all of it.

Her struggle with balancing two very separate and different groups of friends was so true to life. Tamara Ireland Stone captured this aspect of high school perfectly with her incredible writing. Every one of Sam’s emotions were felt and understood completely. Sam’s worry—her wish—to be “normal” was so heartfelt and honest that you wanted to just reach in and give her a hug.

And the twists! Truthfully, I had a hunch about what was happening pretty early on, but there were still many surprises that I never saw coming. And my hunch did not affect my enjoyment of the story in any way. In fact, I think it enhanced it!

Sam’s relationship with AJ was sweet perfection. I loved how they started on pretty rocky ground, but they worked through it and created a beautiful relationship from it. He loved her just as she was, even when she wasn’t sure how she felt about herself. His unwavering honesty was exactly what she needed.

After reading this book, you will forever remember Every. Last. Word.


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Every Last Word Tamara Ireland Stone 9781484705278 Books Reviews

Characters

Samantha It might be difficult at first to know whether or not you're supposed to like Samantha. Sure she's the main character, but she's part of the "mean girl" clique at school. Usually we're led to believe that these girls are vain, shallow, and cruel to anyone that is not part of their group. While this may be true in the beginning for some of her friends, Samantha is actually a decent person, albeit one with a dark secret she suffers from an obsessive disorder that makes life next to unbearable.

I found her to be a ridiculously strong character. High school is difficult enough, but with a disorder like this and all the trouble that comes with it, she somehow manages to keep it a secret from her friends. Looking back on it, of course keeping a secret like this is terrible and her friends aren't worth if it they'd treat her badly because of it, but for someone in high school, image can be everything, so I understand how she felt regarding the situation.

The Poet's Corner these characters were all unique in their difficulties, but all brought together by their love of writing. In high school I would have given anything to have the comraderie they seem to share.

Antagonist(s)

This is sort of a difficult area because there wasn't a clear villain, exactly, though there were some "characters" that added to the difficulty of Samantha's journey.

Mean Girls these are the friends that Samantha has grown up with and fits in with the best, despite some of them being horrible people. They were a little cliche in their meanness, I'll admit. Samantha herself states that she doesn't agree fully with their bullying of other classmates, but she goes along with it out of peer pressure. I can't remember coming across someone in real life that was like Samantha in this instance. The bullies that I dealt with were jerks through and through, but in the story, at least there is hope for some of the girls. Even if they wouldn't turn out like this in real life, at least in fiction we can hope for the best and see it begin to come true.

OCD I am not very familiar with OCD as a realistic disease, so I am not sure to what degree what Samantha suffered is real. It was, however, presented in a overpowering and ever present way that made me believe, for the course of the book, that I could understand how Samantha was feeling, if only for a little bit.

Imagery

Imagery wasn't a part of the novel that I really noticed as anything extraordinary, perhaps because it took place in the real world and it was an everyday sort of place, unlike if it were a fantasy novel. I knew, or at least could hazard a guess, what the place looked like without having to have it painted out for me.

Plot/Pacing

I found the writing to be fairly streamlined. It was a fairly quick read. The prose was catchy enough to be interesting without too much going on, and it left off in good places at the end of chapters so that I wanted to continue.

Ending

There was a fairly big surprise for Samantha toward the end that, while devastating, I was at least starting to guess midway through the book. It was an interesting choice for the author to make. In the course of the story I found it plausible, though a bit sad as the person involved in this revelation was a character that I had really felt happy with.

Summary

There are times when this novel can feel a bit dark because of the panic and terror that Samantha feels, but it is well worth the emotional journey that she and you as the reader will undertake.
Before I give this review, I want to acknowledge that Tamara Ireland Stone is an extremely gifted and talented writer. She is a phenomenal storyteller. Like most, I found myself not being able to put this book down. My only criticism of the story is that it was unrealistic, but I guess that's what fiction is all about, yes? Try as I might, I just could not warm up to Samantha, the main character. The more I progressed into the story, the more my dislike for her increased. Long story short, Sam struck me as a spoiled, self-absorbed, pampered sixteen year old who had everything. She always seemed to be on the receiving end of life, giving nothing to others in return. Her chief obsession was...well....herself. It was just all about Sam, her thoughts, her feelings, and we never heard about what she might be doing to other people and how her ways might be affecting them and making their lives difficult. Sam appears to come from a wealthy family. She has a car. She's pretty, popular, and she hangs around other girls who also have money, looks, and popularity. Sam is on the swim team and hopes for a swimming scholarship. She has a mental illness which she is amazingly able to hide from everyone, including her closest friends. This is totally unrealistic. She has a psychiatrist who goes all out for her, even buying her presents and bringing her into her garden at home, covering her with a comforter, and bringing her hot tea to drink during one of her meltdowns. Come on. Is this reality? In real life, mental illness of any kind is bitter, raw, dark, ugly, and lonely. It's something that most people have to go through on their own. They certainly don't have all of the props, comfort, reinforcements, and networks that the main character had. I would have appreciated a book that was a little more realistic when it comes to mental illness and what it is really and truly like for those who struggle with it. In the real world, Sam's support network simply does not exist. You know it as well as I. The grim reality is that one of the reasons why those who suffer from mental illness are suffering so horribly is because most of them are being forced to go through it alone. We live in a world where nobody cares about anybody. Most relationships are shallow and superficial. If you're hurting, you're pretty much going to go through it alone. And yet, here is Sam, driving her expensive car at sixteen, going to top-notch spas, concerts, enjoying the good life, finding a poet's club filled with loving and caring characters that in reality don't exist anywhere except maybe in the Book of Acts, with numerous people to hold her hand, comfort her, and help her to get through. I'm sorry, but when you're dealing with the ugliness of mental illness of any type, I think it's important to paint a more realistic picture of life so that those who do suffer from it can feel like there is hope for them just as there was for Sam.

Again, Ms. Stone is an incredible writer. I just feel that this particular story was too unrealistic for a subject as serious and life-threatening as mental illness. Mental illness is a reality for millions. But Sam's upscale life and her incredible reinforcement network is NOT. We need books to be published that will show the main character overcoming mental illness in spite of the fact that he or she does NOT have Sam's unrealistic life and reinforcement network. I think books like this will go a lot farther when it comes to giving others inspiration and hope because it's a reality that they can relate to and connect with.
Every Last Word is not only an endearing love story, it is a fascinating peek into the mind of a girl with OCD. I couldn’t put it down!

The thoughts Sam had, the secrets she kept, the adjustments she had to make every day of her life were truly a struggle for her, and it was amazing to see her journey through all of it.

Her struggle with balancing two very separate and different groups of friends was so true to life. Tamara Ireland Stone captured this aspect of high school perfectly with her incredible writing. Every one of Sam’s emotions were felt and understood completely. Sam’s worry—her wish—to be “normal” was so heartfelt and honest that you wanted to just reach in and give her a hug.

And the twists! Truthfully, I had a hunch about what was happening pretty early on, but there were still many surprises that I never saw coming. And my hunch did not affect my enjoyment of the story in any way. In fact, I think it enhanced it!

Sam’s relationship with AJ was sweet perfection. I loved how they started on pretty rocky ground, but they worked through it and created a beautiful relationship from it. He loved her just as she was, even when she wasn’t sure how she felt about herself. His unwavering honesty was exactly what she needed.

After reading this book, you will forever remember Every. Last. Word.