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Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone (Fiction)

16 year old Samantha is perfect.  She is the best swimmer and is part of the Crazy Eights, the most popular group in the whole school.  However, being perfect comes with a cost.  Samantha suffers with extreme OCD causing her to spiral. So as her so called friends start to bully her, she feels she doesn’t have the strength to fight back and stand up for herself. But during her darkest moment she befriends a mysterious and quiet girl named Caroline, who leads her to a secret club of misfits, outcasts and artist called Poet's Corner. There she feels finally free and is able to control her OCD, but is faced with a problem, should she reveal her OCD to the world and find the courage to leave the Crazy Eights or should she continue living a lie?

Every word in this book is about finding the courage to be your own person and showing kindness toward others. There is a great example of this when Caroline accepts Samantha for who she is even though she is one of the popular people who usually picked on Caroline and her friends. Even though there is a difference in the way they live and who they hang out with, they both find comfort in each other. In the book Samantha is struggling with her identity, as her so called friends start to leave her out.  For Samantha or otherwise known as Sam, this is almost life changing showing that even a small thing like saying hello in the cafeteria can really affect someone in a positive way. As shown with Sam and Caroline all it took for them was a small hello.  
I highly recommend this book as a good summer read to all.
Reviewed by Maren K., 8th

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