Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Puffin
Publication Date: 22nd Oct 1999
Pages: 198
Avg. Goodreads Rating: 3.98
When Melinda Sordino's friends discover she called the police to quiet a party, they ostracize her, turning her into an outcast -- even among kids she barely knows. But even worse than the harsh conformity of high-school cliques is a secret that you have to hide.
This book is not just literature, but inspirational art.
This book is about a girl, Melinda who becomes a social outcast and an enemy to all around her because of ringing the police at a party. She slowly begin to feel that she can not share the horrible and disgusting secret inside her, that she must instead let it stay imprisoned inside her, slowly eating up the person she once was, and making her into someone completely different.
Laurie Halse Anderson does it again, making such a controversial issue, stand out against the crowd and leave an ever-lasting impression on all reader's.
I was a massive fan of one of her newer books :[book:Wintergirls|5152478], that I just had to read Speak, and well I have never made such a good decision in my life.
For me Speak is and should be seen as modern YA literature classic, and when I have kids I want them to be studying this book in school talking in-depth on the symbolism, (if you have read the book you will see the reference)
Issues which are featured in this book are mainly things which we as a community and a world tend to over-look because of what it involves, yet it should be an issue spoke out upon. This book alone holds a strong friendship and companion for anyone looking for support in the issues featured in this book. I felt that it was almost a diary of many people going through the same thing, it is a book to confine in and a book full of support.
Laurie Halse Anderson, as a writer doesn't just write, she creates. She creatures all these wonderful and realistic character's, all these un-believable images and all this amazing affects which get handed over to the reader.
Throughout this story I continuously witnessed Laurie Halse Anderson use such meaningful and effected phrases and words, that I myself felt the pure and heart-wrenching emotion which protagonist: Melinda feels. When she feels like she can't speak out or ever talk, the feeling is passed on to me, when her lips are described as being blistered, I can feel mine feeling the same to, and every moment Melinda feels a single emotions, I share that moment with her. For me, it was almost like poetry.
The book is split into a number of short chapters, each bit on it's own holding no reason to be in the story, but when together makes Speak what it is. Though I will admit the short chapter's made the book seem much longer, and was the main reasoning behind why it took so long for me to complete.
Melinda is a character who is hard to talk about and hard to sum up. She is two people in one. One personality overpowering the other. The other being herself before her secret happened.
Her overpowering personality is the only one we really witness (though her other personality, shone through at moments), though it is a character we don't properly come to grips with.
She is a character, who despite what she shows is strong, and one of the strongest I've witnessed, she's a character I didn't love, nor hate but a character I liked. She is an inspiration, which for me is the most important thing.
If you have not read this book, please do, it will teach you allot and it will provide you a source of entertainment.
I give this book:
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