Barnes & NobleSpeak by Laurie Halse Anderson

amazing storytelling

I loved reading it was nice but also depressing. But overall a nice book

Read This Book For School

I really love this book i read it for a english project and fell in love with it i don’t have a copy of the book…yet but i am considering buying it eventually.

Deserves a broad audience

Speak is considered Young Adult but also would be appreciated by adults. Narrated in the first person, the immediacy of Melinda's point of view drew me in immediately and I could get a sense of her hidden pain through the snark and observations of her new high school experience. Through her inner voice we understand the chokehold that her trauma has on her internally, as well as how she is repeatedly victimized by others who don't have an interest in truly listening to her. Even at home, she is largely unseen and unheard. I loved how the author created so much empathy for her but still kept a light touch. The literary parallel between Melinda exploring her voice through the creation of art and Melinda eventually owning and expressing the event that traumatized her was deftly handled. Instead of leaving the reader with a sense of hopelessness, we walk with Melinda through the darkness of her experience and come out with a sense of control being restored, even though the trauma cannot be fully erased. The central themes are also reflected in the life of the school: teachers and students struggling against each other when it comes to points of view, students trying to invent a new persona for themselves in order to be different, speaking up becoming a type of solidarity. This novel deserves a very broad audience.

Absorbing, effective, important

This is a touching, effective, absorbing story of a young girl shunned by her friends, ignored by her parents and misunderstood by her teachers until one teacher finally breaks through. In the midst of the young girl's pain, she has flashes of humor, and her intelligent observations are right on point. Anyone who has felt alone, in high school or anywhere, will immediately understand her story.

Great read

UTS AMAZING

the movie n this book>

speaak review! :)

Speak is a book about a few controversial topics. Melinda loses all of her friends because she won’t tell them what actually happened to her. She feels alone because no one knows what happened to her. No one can help her though because they don’t know what happened. At some points Melinda starts to gaslight herself. She doesn’t even know what is true and what isn’t because she doesn’t want to believe herself. She even tells one of her old friends what happened and they don’t believe her so that just makes it even worse. Her grades start to go down and she doesn’t care about anything that she used to anymore. She is so scared to have no one and sit alone at lunch that she sits with Heather who she doesn’t even really like. She avoids thinking about what happened and even refers to Andy Evans as “IT”. This book has a good pace. It definitely teaches young people that you are not alone and everything is not always the way it seems. Everyone assumes that Melinda just wanted to ruin the party and got everyone in trouble for no reason. Even people who were her closest friends don’t bother asking what actually happened. Eventually, Melinnda tells them what happened and some of them don’t believe her at first. Everyone just wants to see what they want to see and not what is real. They don’t even try to see things from Melinda’s point of view. Melinda eventually becomes friends with those people again even after they ignored her all year and didn't make sure she was okay. Neither Heather nor Melinda had any friends at school at the beginning of the year. They end up sitting together and hanging out outside of school a few times. Once Heather makes new friends, she stops talking to Melinda as much. She asks Melinda to help her with stuff and only talks to Melinda when it is convenient to her. Eventually, she says that she doesn’t want to be friends anymore and leaves. She only sat with Melinda when it saved her from sitting alone and having no one. Melinda was the only one there for her when she needed someone. Once Heather realizes that her new friends aren’t as great as she thought, she comes back to Melinda. She doesn’t apologize for what she said and just pretends like everything is okay. She tries to ask Melinda for her help again but Melinda finally says that she doesn’t want to be friends either. Heather never valued Melinda or her presence and just uses her. I would recommend this book to most people. Especially people in middle school and high school. It teaches you that you shouldn’t be afraid to be alone. Being alone is better than being with people who don’t value you. If you just talk to people there will always be people who support you and are there for you. You shouldn’t forgive people unless they are actually going to change and you should always put yourself before anyone else. It is okay to say no when you don’t want to do something even if it is something that you think you should do.

best book ever

speachless