Analysis Of For Every Last Word By Tamarah Ireland Stone

Depending on many factors, the worthiness of a book can be determined. For Every Last Word by Tamarah Ireland Stone, the book is mostly worthy. In order to classify a book as worthy, it needs to capture the reader's attention, be worth the time to read, as well as leave the reader walking away with a lesson that validates reading the book. In Every Last Word, Samantha struggles with OCD and tries to fit in with her friends at school. The reader joins Samantha on her journey as she faces the dilemma of whether to leave her comfort zone or stay with what she knows. The book has a strong message and resonates well with the reader, but due to the slow pace, repetitive plot, and overall uneventful book, it’s hard for the reader to stay engaged on

It takes place in a typical high school that fits with the target audience of teenagers/young adults. It resonates with the reader through Samantha’s feeling of guilt after socializing with people that aren’t healthy for her and immediately regretting it, as she tells herself multiple times, “I shouldn’t have gone” (Stone 73). It highlights specifically the theme of self awareness, as Samantha slowly realizes that she needs to put her needs before others in order to keep herself safe. Since the setting is in a place so similar to the target audience, the relevance helps prompt the reader to apply life skills and lessons that Samantha used to their own similar situations. In addition to the self awareness theme, the book has many strong messages that Samantha learns along the way. When

Throughout the story, the scenarios were very repetitive and had a slow pace. The plot was essentially Samantha socializing with her popular friends and getting hurt, then swimming and writing poetry to cope. All while eventually realizing that it’s better for her to socialize with people who match her interests and don’t bring her down. It was repetitive with basically the same thing happening just reiterated in a different way, which causes the reader to lack interest in the book. In addition to this, the characters strongly matched those of a “romcom” or Hallmark movie. There were the stereotypical mean girls and the nerdy group following an unrealistic dialect; The way that they spoke didn’t resemble how teenagers talk today and felt unnatural. It also had the typical “quirky” main character who falls in love with the nerd and sees qualities in him that nobody else sees. The book had a good message, but due to the slow pace and cliche characters and plot, it doesn’t prompt the reader to want to pick it up and continue to