Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - Every Last Word

I had a really fun time reading the first half/three-quarters of Every Last Word.

The writing was compelling, the characters enjoyable, and the romance adorable. I'd describe the plot as Brenna Yovanoff's Paper Valentine meets Clueless. One member of a group of mean girls wants to change herself but is too afraid of her friends' reactions, but something gives her a chance to find her own interests and make new, nicer friends. Plus, she has OCD!

I seem to love that mean girl trope, and I definitely enjoyed reading about the teenage girl drama. (Much more preferable than living through it, or having to supervise it!)

Unfortunately, Sam's big reveal, which the book's summary calls, "...a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear,“ fell into the cliche that so many stories about mental health or chronic illness seem to fall into. If you regularly read or look for disability representation, you're probably familiar with the type: instead of being a story where a girl with OCD tries to break away from her toxic friend group, it became a story where a girl with toxic friends struggles with OCD. Except it isn't even a symptom of OCD that she turns out to be experiencing.

Sam hallucinated her new best friend, the one who encouraged her to make new friends, break away from the Crazy Eights (the mean girls, and really, what an interesting name to appear in a book about mental illness), and stop hiding her OCD from her friends.

I saw the twist coming, and kudos to the author for foreshadowing it well. I just hate it.

If the big, climactic disaster had to be about Sam's mental health instead of her friends, which was certainly a strong enough plotline to stand on its own, I had imagined it would have to do with her current treatment regime no longer working, or someone finding out about her OCD/therapy and spilling the beans before Sam was ready, causing social issues at school and increasing her stress, perhaps leading to unsafe behavior on her part in an effort to be "normal.“ etc.

To add to things, after the big twist, the ending is wrapped up in a neat little bow where Sam suddenly has a near-perfect grip on her OCD. Another trope that people seem to love in stories, but that's rarely how it works in real life.

Taking the Hollywood-drama-trope copouts weakened the ending and moved the focus away from where I felt it was supposed to be: Sam's relationships with the people around her.

The real people, that is.

I really wanted to like this book all the way to the end. But while I can't speak for the OCD portrayal, I do not recommend this book to anyone looking for genuine, cathartic representation.

I know how I feel when I encounter this same trope in stories that do portray one of the illnesses I have, and it's not a good feeling.

Content Warnings

awxhhlilla's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Content Warnings

xmia_69's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

wormsforbrains's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

so nostalgic i wasn’t ready to leave this book behind </3

Content Warnings

anielabooks's review

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was a very lovely read. I don’t usually read coming of age novels but I remembered someone online recommended it to me a while back. I really didn’t see the plot twist coming because it had been so long since I read the summary that I was basically going in blind. I recommend this book to people in high school who feel misunderstood. The message was lovely, and I appreciate the effort that the author took to portray OCD in an educated and respectful way.

Content Warnings

balluna's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i expected the plottwist but other than that 👌

Content Warnings

jamespotterluv's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

honestly. wow. everyone needs to read this. it's a book, yet so much more. there's times where i laughed, smiled, cried. i saw the plot twist coming, but seconds before it came. kind of like when you hit a wall and then realise it's a wall. it's fiction, but it's not. i don't completely relate to the character, but in different ways i do. it was really moving and could probably help a lot of people. it's realistic. it portrays ocd in a way i haven't seen ocd portrayed (yet) and it's an ACCURATE portrayal. it's not only the "addicted to cleaning" misconception. every word added something. it's not a light book. there are light moments, funny moments, but it's not a light book. i think that's important. it approaches topics that need to be approached. i won't spoil the ending, but the ending did the mc justice. i loved this book. i hate odd numbers and not using a half/quarter star rating, but i can't give it anything else. i can't find a flaw. even when the words weren't the poetry that surrounds the plot, the words were poetry. if that makes sense. i was expecting a good book but it's honestly incredible.

Content Warnings

bookish_rin35's review

Go to review page

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

More...