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cipotalectora's review against another edition
5.0
It is easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.
Speak, to me, is taken more as a lesson than just a book. A lesson worth reading and worth analyzing every little detail, no matter how the writing is and no matter how repetitive it can get. It's a short novel where the life of an individual is so much more, and worth so much more, but people don't show that side because they don't believe it to be worth so much. Speak spoke to me. It's a story where you reflect on your past actions of judgment, shamefulness, misguidedness, and even power, especially power. We've all been in those times, judging people, looking at them like we're better than them when in reality, we are nothing close to them. We end up misjudging them but don't realize it after, and I think that's what this book spoke to me the most about. I think it's about giving you a short lesson on finding out the true colors of your friends, the people around you, and seeing how one thing can make a difference for everyone, even when that "everyone" doesn't know the reasons behind the actions that changed every perspective.
On the paper you will find one word, the name of an object. I hope you like it. You will spend the rest of the year learning how to turn that object into a piece of art. You will sculpt it. You will sketch it, papier-mâché it, carve it. If the computer teacher is talking to me this year, you can use the lab for computer-aided designs. But there's a catch—by the end of the year, you must figure out how to make your object say something, express an emotion, speak to every person who looks into it.
Melinda Sordino called the cops on a night at a party, resulting in teens getting busted, arrested, and running for their lives. With that action, everyone ended up hating her, her "best friends" no longer talked to her but instead, they gave her glares and smirks, while other people Melinda doesn't even know hate her from a long distance, resulting in insults and words spoken behind her back. Melinda knows why she called the cops, but there isn't anyone else who does know. Unable to speak after that night, Melinda describes herself as An Outcast, no longer having any friends and anyone willing to listen to her.
Speak is about reflecting on the past actions and understanding that the victim isn't always at fault. It's about speaking up for our belief after not being able to handle the pain of loneliness, sadness, and silence. It's about finding your voice after confronting your biggest fear.
Trigger/content warnings for rape and sexual assault.
Homework is not an option. My bed is sending out serious nap rays. I can't help myself. The fluffy pillows and warm comforter are more powerful than I am. I have no choice but to snuggle under the covers.
I'm not a survivor of rape or any cause of sexual assault, but I'm a survivor of depression, of loneliness, of being an introvert, or shyness, of quietness, and of many sad moments where I can do everything my body allows me to do (sit, lie down, move, walk, run, etc.) except talk. Unlike Melinda, I chose not to talk not because I was too scared to let people know the truth, but because there wasn't any truth I felt worth telling. I was trapped inside my head with my own thoughts as they made their way from my left-brain to my right-brain, shutting everything and everyone down, telling me that no one really cares and is bothering to listen. Melinda did too, but there were times where she wanted to let someone know. I, on the other hand, decide not to chat many times primarily because I hate the way I sound but also because I am afraid of being wrong, of being rejected, and of being laughed at for any comment I made.
In Speak, we follow Melinda through her first year in high school as a new freshman who is already disliked by everyone. After she called the cops on a summer-break party, people started whispering about her, bullying her, insulting her, and never daring to talk to someone like her because she was a nobody to them. Melinda was used to it, but she wishes she had a friend who would listen first, reflect after, decide later. I can't say I relate to Melinda in every way, but I understand some of her thoughts. From the self-harm to the suicide thoughts, it all felt real—it's as if I saw myself in her eyes sometimes, wanting to talk to someone but instantly taking back that thought and keeping my lips shut, canned, sealed.
Melinda is a realistic character. She doesn't hide her reality from us, and as readers, it's our job to figure it out, analyze the descriptions and figure out what she is trying to tell us. And Speak, to me, is the book Melinda wants us to have. She's the narrator, the character telling us her story, and it's up to us to listen or not, to care or do not care, to bother trying or to not waste our energy. I think Melinda would have had a much easier life if she had at least one friend, whether it was a long-distance friendship or a friendship where they couldn't see each other much, but the connection and the communication were still there. I wish she had someone who believed her and would try to do anything she could in her will to be there and listen to Melinda tell her about her awful and exhausting days at school. But it truly made sense for the author to not include it, because sometimes, in books, no sympathy, pity, compassion, grief, empathy, or any caring action should be there in order for the reader to really grasp the reality the character is living and having to go through every single day. And what makes it worse is that the world of this book is so real. We end up seeing the true colors of people after things explode. Our true best friends will end up showing their identities when something bad happens, our one and only friend will leave us for another group only to later regret that choice, and people will end up talking to you like nothing ever happened after your most traumatic experience has been revealed.
I mean, Heather from Ohio, for example, was the true definition of a self-centered bitch who didn't care about anything or anyone besides herself, as if she was the only person in the world. Truly, Melinda deserved better, and Heather got what she deserved. She was never a friend, she was only someone using a lonely girl who didn't talk to anyone because she knew she could brainwash her into believing that she had someone close to her. So she decides to manipulate her and having her "help out" when in reality, she was always doing everything. All in all, Melinda never deserved to suffer more with Heather, and I was really glad Laurie decided to open up her brain and show her the reality of Heather. I also appreciate the fact that she then didn't take any of Heather's bullshit when she went over and "apologized", after telling her she would help her for her stupid Martha’s Group project. I mean, you don't tell a friend what she's gonna do for you Heather, you ask them. Nicely. Politely.
Why is it so hard to make friends here? Is there something in the water? In my old school I could have gone out for the musical and worked on the newspaper and chaired the car wash. Here people don't even know I exist. I get squished in the hall and I don't belong anywhere and nobody cares. And you're no help. You are so negative and you never try anything, you just mope around like you don't care that people talk about you behind your back.
Well, Heather, I guess your only option is to go back, isn't it?
This closet is abandoned—it has no purpose, no name. It is the perfect place for me.
This is a short story, one worth reading in one sitting. 197 pages in and all you can do is either like the book or not, love it or hate it. There's so much to take from it if you find what the author wants you to take from it. It isn't a story for everyone, but it is a story worth knowing about. I personally think it's better to be read from a perspective of someone who understands what it is like to shut yourself down and think to yourself if anyone will notice if you just didn't speak at all. The thing is, people have already noticed. They don't see the "why" and they don't see what is killing you inside, but they notice the outside of you and recognize you as “the girl who called the cops at the party”. It's just that one night can change you forever, either negatively or positively impact you, and there will always come the time where people will not care until they know about it, and that's what bothers me the most.
I think it's such a stupid instinct for us to care about people once we see them hurting, but I also think that's what the beauty of books are. Books can teach us that, the messages that are in front of us but are not close enough for us to see it. Personally, I get lost in the words of the book, not in its world. Many people read in order to escape to another reality or to a fantasy they never could dream of, but I get lost in the words. They also read to lose track of time or find themselves doing something different. I read books because of the enjoyment and comfort they bring me, which leads me to say that I rate books off enjoyment.
I read books because I want to learn something from it, whether it's a non-fiction book, fantasy, sci-fi, classic, I read for the moment I'm in. I read because I want to understand the message or the lesson the narrator is trying to tell me, whether it's one perspective or multiple. Speak is one of those rare books I find myself most comfortable in. The book isn't beautiful nor is any character. There is truly no moral support in this--no friendships, no family dynamics, no useful resources. Yet the author managed to make me love this book and partly regret the fact that I didn't read it before. Even with an obvious plot, childish dialogue, boring characters (except David and Mr. Freeman), I still enjoyed everything in this and managed to mark it as one of my favorite books that I will probably buy the 20th-anniversary edition which comes out January 15 of this year, 2019.
This book can be life-changing. It makes you think about the world we are living and realize that the world in Merryweather High School is similar to many high schools in the world, ranging from country to country. The reason I say life-changing is because, if you pay attention to Melinda and her story, you can see she isn't just "the most depressed person Heather has ever met" but instead, as someone who is struggling with her nightmares that keep haunting her because she got raped and didn't really know. She isn't just "Sordino, sitting in the front row, always wandering the halls" because she wants to, it's because she doesn't have other options. She's alone and has no one to rely on, yet she still manages to survive, and I think she's a strong realistic character who had character growth in the end. The story is short, and the truth is set free in the end as well, so it is reasonable and valid for the author to let it all out in the beginning, resulting in Melinda showing her strength towards Andy and no longer being an outcast but instead the girl who was hiding her truth because she was scared.
Described as both problematic but also empowered, it can be balanced on a scale of both. Personally, I find it empowering. Although I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing, Laurie Halse Anderson wrote this book from a nightmare she had of a girl who was sobbing. What she heard from the girl, she wrote it, and she wrote this. I'm guessing the girl crying was Melinda, since she said in the interview (a bonus from the platinum edition) that it happened to be that way, and I don’t think Anderson even thought her book would be a book so many teens find comfort in.
I didn't go into this book knowing everything. I had seen this book before, on many lists here on Goodreads and overall, I had seen it pop up in my feed as friends and reviewers added it to their tbr. I had seen it in my library, both in the YA section and sometimes displayed as "featured books" for specific events and read-a-thons my local libraries host. I never got the urge to pick it up, and I'm glad I did at this time. I appreciated the way she wrote this as if it was multiple diary entries towards the reader. Told in the first-person perspective, Melissa takes us on her journey through the present and the past, with the present being the person she is at the moment and the past being flashbacks.
I won't lie. Initially, I checked this out from my library because it's been on "life-changing books" lists on Goodreads and mentioned in other blogs as "life-changing" and I needed a life-changing book, specifically because there's a college application asking for it. It's asking for a book that changed my life and how it's changed the way I view everything (life, the world, people, myself, etc.) and I didn't know where to start beside with books that have been labeled as problematic, empowered, and realistic. Speak is one of them, and there's more to come soon.
"What are your goals, Mel?"
I used to be like Heather. Have I changed that much in two months? She is happy, driven, aerobically fit. She has a nice mom and an awesome television. But she's like a dog that keeps jumping into your lap. She always walks with me down the halls chattering a million miles a minute.
My goal is to go home and take a nap.
Every character in the story is bizarre, choosing to listen to rumors and not choose the facts. They’re truly misguided and haven’t been taught well. They also judge Melinda on the way she's seen, not letting her sit with them, throwing mashed potato at her, kneeing her, childishly taping insults written on a piece of paper to her back, glaring and smirking at her as if she was prey and they are predators. It truly is sad how judgemental the world is and continues to be. I don't think it's getting better, but instead, it's getting worse. There are racist comments in this, but it's fine. It's made by a character you can show nothing but hate towards because of his attitude and the power he believes he holds. Then I met David and the whole view changes because I then saw that there is still hope in the world and there always will be, as there will always be that one person sticking up for everyone because he or she isn't afraid of it.
You don't understand, my headvoice answers. Too bad she can't hear it. My throat squeezes shut, as if two hands of black fingernails are clamped on my windpipe. I have worked so hard to forget every second of that stupid party, and here I am in the middle of a hostile crowd that hates me for what I had to do. I can't tell them what really happened. I can't even look at that part of myself. An animal noise rustles in my stomach.
Melinda should be a sympathetic character, but I can't show it. It's rare for me to read contemporary and realistic fiction without feeling some sort of care or sympathy towards the character. There isn't anything wrong with Melinda, but I knew I was gonna get an answer from her. The hope I held on to while reading this was the only thing I had left, but it was only for her, as there was no hope from anyone else for anyone because everyone in this seems to be selfish and think they have conquered the world in so many ways.
When I went to that party, I was abducted by aliens. They have created a fake Earth and fake high school to study me and my reactions. This certainly explains cafeteria food. Not the other stuff, though. The aliens have a sick sense of humor.
I didn't know Speak was adapted to a movie. While the window for this review was open on my laptop, I decided to watch it. Since the movies adapted from books always have at least some similarity, I knew most of it. I knew what conversation was about to happen, I knew who was who, I knew the ending, I knew the plot. But here's the thing: the ending of the book and the movie are different, many scenes are cut, and many dialogues are completely different. It all makes sense since books are always better and the movies are never the same as the book, but I guess I expected more. The book is short, but so is the movie. I think the best I got from the movie was the friendship between Melinda and David that grew. Not in a romantic way but in a platonic way, and it felt to me like he really cared for her, even in the book. He wasn't just using her, he didn't stay away from her, he tried helping her, he invited her to do Biology homework, and it looked like he wanted to be her friend. In the end, I think they end up as friends, but both endings, in the movie and the book, we are left with wanting more.
In the book, Melinda ends it with "Let me tell you about it" while in the movie, the ending is completely different, as it ends with Melinda and her mother. At that point, I didn't care much. I literally skipped it because I couldn't take any bullshit from her parents. There was no support and no relationship between Melinda and both of her parents. They didn't even try, they just noticed, as everyone else does. It was sad to see it that way, the reality, that even her parents don't try but only notice. It's as if they hear the rumors and notice the way it plays into Melinda's life but don't ever ask about it.
In the end, Melinda showed growth. With the help of Mr. Freeman (by the way, we all need a teacher like him, no matter what subject!), she was able to find her truth and let it out. She was able to see herself as someone much more than who she was, letting out the birds that were trapped in the cage as she paints not her past life but her current life.
After reading Melinda’s last sentence to Mr. Freeman, I realized I’ve been that bird trapped in my cage, not allowing to set myself free because I’m still scared. We all have a voice, but we also have a choice. I think we all make the choice of using our voice when the right time comes, but for now, I don’t think it’s that time. I can’t see myself speaking up for someone or for something. Although I’m really passionate about immigration law, I can’t become the activist I see myself as at times. I can’t see myself yelling at Republicans but instead, I see myself as the small girl who is being towered over by the Republicans themselves as they smirk at me knowing they have won.
But hopefully, I’ll find my soft voice soon and use it for the best.
You have to know what you stand for, not just what you stand against.
jenmangler's review against another edition
4.0
I've had this one to read for a while, but I kept putting it off. I thought it would be a difficult read because of the subject matter. So I was very surprised when I finally started reading it and found I couldn't put it down. Yes, it deals with a difficult subject, but it was such a good read that I found myself reading "one more section" over and over until I reached the end. Very moving.
wtfbrii's review against another edition
4.0
This book follows Melinda a freshman (I believe ) in high school. This book has a lot of tricky topics in it so I would check the trigger warnings before reading. All in all this book addresses the reality of abuse and assault and the effects it has on the victims
bferguson1's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
sitnsip218's review against another edition
5.0
Such a beautiful story, I was able to relate and feel Melinda’s pain and I think the author just truly excuted the story perfectly. I also want to thank the author for writing a book that hit so deep for me but made me feel good to be able to have someone relate to that pain and suffer and then just sprout at the end.
taylor311's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
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
5.0
my comfort book
owie_jowie's review against another edition
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25