Samantha McAllister is part of the "mean girls" clique in high school. Underneath her make-up, straightened hair, and carefully chosen outfits she's hiding a secret - she has OCD. She even sees a psychiatrist for it. She knows if her friends ever found out they would torture her, but they've been her whole life for so many years that she has nowhere else to go. Until she meets Caroline. Caroline is the complete opposite of what her friends would approve of. She shows Sam a secret room known as "Poet's Corner" where a small group of friends meet a couple of times a week. Sam discovers a whole new side of herself, a side she really likes, a "normal" side. But she has to keep her new friends a secret.
This story felt flat and unrealistic to me. It deals with a serious topic but doesn't give a realistic representation of it. The story focused on Sam finding herself through friends she actually liked, people who were actually nice to her. Basically it was a typical high school story. Her OCD was sprinkled in here and there and she miraculously hides it from her friends for many years. Sam was very, very quick to take her relationship with her new boyfriend to the next level. There were so many names that I couldn't keep track of who they all were. I was kinda disappointed with the poetry aspect of the book. The only reason for the second star is because I liked Caroline's story towards the end.
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