Book Review: Speak

Speak  by Laurie Halse Anderson has become one of those notorious novels that you either love or loathe. Since it was so hyped up, I expected to be in the latter category, but there's a reason this story was a finalist for the National Book Award. It's powerful. Anderson doesn't waste time with pretty words or purple prose. We get it straight, realistic, right from the mouth of the 14-year-old girl living it.

According to the book's blurb:

Since the beginning of the school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it's been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: "My throat is always sore, my lips raw.... Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze.... It's like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis." What could have caused Melinda to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got everyone busted at the seniors' big end-of-summer party? Or maybe it's because her parents' only form of communication is Post-It notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she knows the real reason why she's been struck mute...

I confess, I already knew what traumatic event the MC, Melinda, went through before I read the book. But it made me more intrigued. It was one of those sensitive subjects that usually is overdone or underdone. To get it just right is difficult and, some would say, impossible. I think Ms. Anderson nailed it.

Melinda comes across as tormented by what happened, but I found that reasonable and not overly indulgent (as some people have argued). I liked how Ms. Anderson entwined her inability to voice her protests during the traumatic event with her declining willingness to speak, and (just to show you how skilled a writer Ms. Anderson is) Melinda is also given the chance to regain her voice in the perfect way.

The book made me hurt, wince, cry. Especially in the scene where Melinda faints in biology. It was so powerful. Wrenching. That scene, more than any other, pulled my heart out of my throat and crushed it.

I can understand why this is becoming recommended reading for teenagers.

Rating (out of five stars): 4
Recommended read: Most definitely. For victims of sexual assault as well as for people who think they "get" what it's like to be sexually assaulted.