Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Synopsis:
Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.

My Review:
Laurie Halse Anderson captured the voice and character of a teenager in 9th grader perfectly. Melinda was smart and witty which I appreciated because often times I feel teenagers as a whole are degraded through the juvenile language associated with them in literature and popular films. This book was sad and sometimes hard to read but concluded in a positive way. It tackled some tough issues that all teenagers have to deal with, even some issues I wish no one would ever have to deal with such as rape.

I think this book was more meaningful to me now than it would have been if I had read it when it first came out. That’s because I personally know people who have been raped and I have seen the toll it has taken on their lives. It is one of the hardest things I have ever had to see someone I love go through. Melinda came to terms with what happened to her and ended up telling someone what happened but there are so many people who never find their voice and remain silent. In this way “Speak” offers an important message to not only teenagers but to everyone that we cannot afford to remain silent because one person’s silence not only affects them but impacts all of us.