Every Last Word

Samantha McAllister appears to have it all, a spot in the popular clique, a place on the swim team, the right friends. What no one sees is the obsessive-compulsive disorder running underneath, the intrusive thoughts and rituals around the number three that she hides at all costs, and the daily fear that her cutting friends will turn on her if they ever find out. Then quiet, kind Caroline shows her a hidden room beneath the school auditorium where a secret club called Poet's Corner reads work aloud, and Sam discovers a place where her racing mind is welcome and poetry gives the noise somewhere to go. Stone, who lives with OCD herself, writes the disorder with accuracy and warmth, building toward a turn that recasts the whole story.