Readers United Book Reviews | Every Last Word and All Grown Up

In this installment, Jamie Shin '20 shares two novels that deal with dark themes in interesting and unique ways. 

Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone

I was intrigued to read Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone because of the compelling blurb on the back of the book. It is an accurate expression of what the book is about—a girl and her fight with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Samantha McCallister is a junior in high school, and, from the eyes of her classmates, her life seems perfect. In reality, it is exactly the opposite. Her OCD was easier to hide when she was younger, but now she struggles to hide her compulsiveness beneath her perfect makeup and fresh manicure. Her friends don’t have her back, and she feels she cannot be herself. That is, until she meets Caroline and finds the Poet’s Corner.

Tamara Ireland Stone does a great job of realistically portraying what OCD is like, as she writes through the eyes of the Samantha. After reading her author’s note, I realized how much work she put into making it as truthful as possible by doing research and talking to professions and teens with OCD. Her efforts definitely show through in her writing.

However, her portrayal of what being a teenager is like is unrealistic. The scenes are too jumpy, skipping over details in hardships and instead focusing on the positive parts of the main character’s story. Everything just miraculously ends up working out for the main character, and I could not help but think throughout reading the book that life just doesn’t work that way, especially in high school. There is a typical happy ending, but that’s not a spoiler, because it’s obvious for the reader that the book will end that way.

My favorite aspect of the book is that poetry plays a large role. Poetry helps Samantha get through her hard times, and lets her speak her thoughts to let things out. I love poetry myself, and could really relate to the main character.

Verdict: I would recommend this book to younger audiences, because the language is very light. Without a doubt, the book is entertaining and informative about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; however, I wouldn’t recommend this book to whoever wants to read a thrilling novel or a book that pulls you in to read it all in one sitting.

All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg

All Grown Up by Jami Attenburg is a realistic fiction comedy about what it means to be an adult, told through Andrea Bern, the main character, a thirty-nine year old, single, and somewhat lost, woman looking for a shoulder to lean on. Andrea seems to have the messiest life one can imagine. Living in New York, she was aspiring to be an artist, until she dropped out of college due to her crazy mentor’s manipulation. She now has a steady job in the big city, but one she does not care the slightest about. All Grown Up takes the reader through her ups and downs—from her rough childhood, as she goes through men and fake friends, to how the birth and death of her fatally ill niece might’ve killed and saved her family at the same time.

I picked this book up because it looked like a light read and I was looking for a book I could read in one sitting. I was taken by surprise when it was exactly the opposite. Despite its size, took me about 5 hours to read, not only because I am a slow reader, but also because I had to double take and go back to fully understand passages, multiple times. All Grown Up introduces very heavy topics, and is definitely meant for older audiences-- adults in their 20s to 40s, and maybe even older. The older audience would be able to connect with the character’s humor, but I personally couldn’t, because I had never gone through any of the character’s problems and could not relate.

A definite downfall about this book was that it was one of the most depressing books I have ever read. It’s probably because of, once again, the age thing, as the author’s humor is really dark.

My favorite thing about the book, though, was that the author’s voice felt so raw. Andrea is so confidently flawed that it made the character feel real. This is the one passage in the book that stood out to me the most: “Her life is architected, elegant, and angular, a beauty to behold, and mine is a stew, a juice, sloppy mess of ingredients and feelings and emotions, too much salt and space, too much anxiety, always a little dribbling down the front of my shirt. But have you tasted it? Have you tasted it? It’s delicious.”

Here you can get a sense of how the author doesn't hide back anything as she writes; it is obvious through her language. I personally love the author’s voice in the book, as she has a writing style I can connect with.

Verdict: I recommend this to readers able to handle heavier themes and stories meant for mature readers. The writing was beautiful, but the humor is dark, and readers who have trouble appreciating that humor fully will struggle to understand aspects of this novel.