“What you see…It isn’t me.” This quote from Every Last Word sums up Samantha McAllister's whole life. This contemporary novel by Tamara Ireland Stone is truly an incredible book. There are so many different aspects of this story to love. The parts I enjoyed most were Sam’s personality growth, the emphasis on mental health, and an ending I’ll never forget. Sam, the main character, has definitely become one of my favorite characters that I’ve had the chance to read about. I thought her growth throughout the book was amazing.

Firstly, the character growth was one main thing that stuck out to me most in the book. In the beginning, Sam was two different people, summer Sam, and school Sam. When Sam was in school, she was always worried about losing her friends and not fitting in. Summer Sam was loud and went for what she wanted. When the new school year starts up it was interesting to see these two different personalities mesh together. Sam finally became who she was meant to be at the end of the book; However, this is not without the help of poetry and her new friend Caroline.

Sam’s friend Caroline was diagnosed with depression at a young age. Caroline and Sam gained a quick connection by sharing the struggles of their mental illnesses. Sam has OCD but she doesn’t care about being clean or neat; whereas, she is more worried about everything going on in her mind. “I’m more obsessive than compulsive, so most of the ‘disorder’ part takes place in my own head.” She obsessives about everything from boys to the last digit of the odometer in her car is on. She would like everything to be in threes, and she has a really hard time sleeping because she can’t quite get her brain to shut off. Our brain delivers thousands of thoughts in a day. Sam gets stuck on only one of those and can’t think of anything else for the rest of the day. In this book, Sam talks about being crazy, but truly her brain is just a tad bit different from the rest of ours.

Secondly, it is super important nowadays that authors write about mental illnesses. Everybody is being affected by a mental health condition some way in their life. They might be going through it right now or know someone who is. I really like this book, because it shows that there is a way to live with mental health conditions, and there is no need to be ‘normal’ to live a happy life. Sam has to work on better her mental health every day, but at the same time just understand that she will always have to live with it. No matter how many medications she is on, or how much she sees her therapist, there will always be a spot in her mind for her OCD.

In the end, the Poet’s Corner, a secret club to read and write poetry, really gave Sam the confidence she needed. I love the ending because the reader finally learns how the Poet’s Corner was founded and it is very shocking. The plot twist is what makes the ending the best. Not everyone is who they are believed to be, and everybody isn’t as happy as they look. Overall, I loved Sam and who she became. I hope her character inspires people to keep pushing through their mental health conditions; there is always something to look forward to, even if it isn’t visible yet.

Sam’s character growth throughout the book was wonderful. Mental health awareness is always something that needs to be talked about in this day and age, and this book does a great job portraying it. However, my favorite part of the book was the ending and the plot twists are what really made it special. This book is great for people who love a little romance but still want to have a strong female character, that will put herself first when it comes to her health. I recommend this excellent contemporary novel for teens and young adults. I really enjoyed this book and haven’t found another book to match how much emotion is shown throughout the story. I hope future readers can really connect with this book just as much as I have.