Reviews

I was required to read this book in ninth-grade English and remembered it as being one of the best books I had to read in high school (uncoincidentally, it was the only modern one), so I decided to try re-reading it.

It's about Melinda, a girl who begins her freshman year of high school despised by virtually everyone due to the fact that she called the cops on a party she attended over summer. Even all her previous friends have abandoned her. At one point, poor Melinda expresses "I would be lucky to get an invitation to my own funeral, with my reputation."

No one knows that Melinda called the cops on the party because of a traumatic event she experienced there that she struggles to come to terms with throughout the book.

It was good. It's a bit slow-paced, but I love Laurie Halse Anderson's writing.

"Mostly I watch the scary movies playing on the inside of my eyelids."

"I open up a paper clip and scratch it across the inside of my wrist. Pitiful. If a suicide attempt is a cry for help, then what is this? A whimper, a peep? I draw little windowcracks of blood, etching line after line until it stops hurting."

"I try to read while eating alone, but the noise gets between my eyes and the page and I can't see through it."

Worth the few hours it took to re-read; I feel like this is good required reading for high school and I'm glad I was introduced to this book then.

undeadpoets_society's review against another edition

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4.0

I originally read Speak because it is my wife's favorite book. Evidently, my wife has extremely great taste in literature. Speak was phenomenal. It takes you on a journey into the mind of a victimized girl, and the pain she suffers. This book is perfect for people who have just started high school, or are about to start high school, because it paints a pretty good picture of high school in my opinion.

Speak was an emotional rollercoaster. Filled with symbolism, and sarcasm, I would love to use this book in my classroom. I would use this book to help demonstrate different literary devices like metaphors and epigraphs. I think it would be fun to read "The Scarlett Letter" before this, and then read Speak afterwards, since it makes references to Hawthorne's work.

Warnings
Drugs: Yes
Sex: Yes
R&R: None
Language: Yes
Violence: Yes

conerosity's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A masterclass in writing adolescent characters and in writing for adolescents. Didactic and powerful. At no point does the reader feel as though the book is hackneyed—the plot and character progressions makes sense and are foreshadowed well.

wyvernfriend's review against another edition

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4.0

So, Melinda Sordino called the cops on a party during the summer and now she's an outcast in her school. She's not dealing well with her year and it's showing but many people, including her parents aren't seeing that it's a real problem, they can only see the top layer.

As the story unfolds we find out what's wrong, we see how she's shamed by her school mates and ostracised by everyone, they blame her for what has happened. The story has been spoilered by a man who wants it banned for soft port because of the rape scene which lasts half a page and is disjointed, upsetting and brutal. As it should be.

And you think that this couldn't happen and you read about the poor girl in Texas on the cheerleading squad who was thrown off the squad because she wouldn't cheer her rapist. (go google it)

It's not an old story, it's not a new story, it's a story that has been told too often and shouldn't be told again, it would be wonderful if we lived in a world where this was unusual, where we could look back in horror at a time that was and a "norm" that was so abnormal, but we can't. This book needs to stay read, needs to stay in the hands of teenagers who need to hear it's eventual message of hope.

It's a compelling, heart-wrenching story and it's really worth looking for and reading.

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