Reviews - Speak | The StoryGraph

7.58k reviews for:

Speak

Laurie Halse Anderson

4.02 AVERAGE

gildy's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional funny informative sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I think every young girl should read this. It was never your fault 💚

Content Warnings

samphiresyl's review against another edition

5.0

This was an extremely difficult read (emotions-wise and in terms of trigger warnings) and honestly I didn’t like it at first and wanted to put it down. I figured “oh it’s a short audiobook so I may as well just listen to the whole thing.” By the end of the book I was getting quite emotional, especially when the school year came full circle. My initial thoughts that Melinda was a snarky teenager was just such a wrong way of thinking about this story. I’ve very glad to have read this whole book, since it gave me a better understanding of who Melinda is and what she went though. I definitely forgot what it was like to be in high school (I blame that partially on Covid, but also on myself), so this was a wake up call for my memories. Melinda experiences sexual assault, bullying, depression, and the societal expectations/pressures that come with being a high schooler throughout the story. It really pained me to see her exhibit signs that would nowadays immediately (at least in the best case scenario) make an educator worried that something had happened, and have really no one do anything about it (art teacher aside). Even her own parents never really ask her why she’s not speaking, they just ask Melinda to please answer them/knock it off. The growth, self healing and determination that Melinda develops during the story is extremely impressive and heartbreaking at the same time. Just ahhhh - That poor kid :( I wasn’t born when this book came out, but I can imagine how rough the conversations surrounding sexual assault were back then since they certainly weren’t that developed in 2016 when I became a teenager. This is a very important read, but certainly not for everyone considering the content.

strawberrypisces's review against another edition

4.75

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

montesorta's review against another edition

3.0

I did not enjoy the narrator for the first 3/4 of the book until she gave an account for what happened that night. Up until that point, she was completely unrelatable, a far cry from the protag of Anderson's other novel "Fever 1793." However, the last 1/4 of the book serves nicely to thrust the narrator into the role of hero, one who speaks, and everything comes full circle for the reader.

plsnotanotherdamselindistress's review against another edition

0.25

challenging dark emotional

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The lesson about consent is great. Also the lesson about empathy (trying to understand why someone acts a certain way even if you would act differently in their situation).

Unfortunately I wanted to scream every second I read this book.

Content Warnings