Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson | Book Review

Title: Speak
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Listening Library
Published Date: December 6th, 2006
Genre: Realistic Fiction, YA
Format: Audiobook


My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Goodreads Summary: 
"Speak up for yourself--we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication. In Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.

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 My Review:

“You have to know what you stand for, not just what you stand against.”                

The first time I ever heard of Speak was from watching the movie. I've watched the movie a handful of times since then and it always gets to me, so when I finally picked up this book I knew kind of what to expect.
I've waited almost a year to write this review just so I can get my thoughts together so I'm sorry if I miss any details.
Speak is a novel that shows Melinda who is a survivor of rape and how her life has changed since it happened.
Melinda is a sarcastic character that is also really realistic with what happens in high school. She mentions the things that are lies, and the things that are actually true. I just really enjoyed her take on it and the friends she did make. I also loved seeing her starting to come back out of her shell and starting to be interested in things again with the help of a teacher.
This book is also full of very tough moments though. When the rapist is in the same area as Melinda we feel how tense she is and Anderson did such a good job of making me feel like I was right there with her. We also see Melinda's home life which isn't the greatest at the moment.

Overall I loved this book just as much as the movie and both are so so good. The movie includes a lot of the book which was so nice to see. The things that were changed made sense to me and really helped get the point of the story across more.
I now can't wait to read more of what Anderson writes.