Book Reviews by Jamie Morris: Genre 6, Book 2: SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson

Bibliographic Data

Anderson, Laurie Halse. 2011. Speak. New York: Square Fish. ISBN: 0312674392.

Plot Summary

Freshman Melinda Sordino starts high school as a school outcast because she called the cops during a summer party, and several students were arrested because of it. None of her classmates know the reason why she called the cops is because she was raped at that party. Traumatized to the point that she can barely speak and all alone in high school, she silently narrates her painful story to the reader as she learns to find her voice again.

Critical Analysis

Written for young adults ages 12 and up, this novel tells the story of an isolated teenager in a first person narrative. High school can be trying for any child, but for Melinda it’s even harder because she was raped over the summer and has told no one. Where she once did well in her classwork, she begins failing her classes in high school. Her parents think her behavior is typical teenage rebellion, and never question her personality or academic change. Her friends from middle school, Nicole and Rachel, no longer talk to her. Nicole is into sports, and Rachel hangs out with the exchange students. Melinda befriends the new girl to the school, Heather, so she has someone to be around. Heather is Melinda’s polar opposite – she’s upbeat, driven, and only interested in how she can succeed in high school. As the school year progresses, Heather joins a clique called the Marthas, who do school decorations for events and dress preppie. She dumps Melinda as her friend because Melinda is always depressed and uninterested in anything. Melinda finds an old janitor’s closet by the gym that is never used any more, cleans it up, and hangs out there by herself during her free periods and dead time so she doesn’t have to be around others.

The only class Melinda does well in is art. She seems to have a natural affinity for it, but later finds out her teacher gives A’s to everyone in his class regardless of their work because it’s his own type of statement (which gets him in trouble with the school board). Nicole is in this class with her, and she eventually starts talking to Melinda again in there, praising her work and slowly becoming her friend again over the course of the school year. Art allows Melinda to express herself some, and is the only schoolwork she has any interest in during this whole story. She takes some of her drawings and etchings to her closet to decorate it, and it makes her feel better. As she and Nicole get reacquainted, Rachel starts to date Andy Evans, who is the boy that raped Melinda. Melinda tries to secretly warn Rachel to stay away from him by sending her an anonymous letter in the mail, but Rachel ignores it. Nicole tells Melinda she thinks Andy is a jerk, and Melinda agrees but doesn’t tell her what happened. Melinda and Rachel are in the library at the same time one day, and she attempts to talk to her about Andy, but Rachel won’t listen. She tells Rachel he raped her, yet she won’t believe Melinda. She goes to the prom with Andy, but gets into some kind of argument with him and dumps him there.

Melinda realizes she no longer wants to hide in the janitor’s closet. She’s told someone the truth, and even if she wasn’t believed, she feels like she doesn’t need to hide any more. She goes to the closet after school to retrieve all her artwork, when Andy Evans walks in and locks the door behind himself. He’s angry at Melinda for telling Rachel he raped her, saying they broke up at prom over an argument about it. Then he says he realized she did it because she was jealous and wanted him back, and tries to rape her again. She breaks the mirror over the sink behind her, and uses a shard of glass to defend herself. She makes Andy unlock the door. The noise of their fight attracts the lacrosse team practicing in the gym. Nicole is on the team, and sees what has happened. The next day, the whole school knows Melinda’s story. Rachel apologizes for not believing her. Melinda spends her last day finishing her art project. The story ends with her art teacher asking her “You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?” and she offers to tell him everything.

This story deals with a very difficult topic that unfortunately happens to some young girls in high schools all across America each year. The worst thing anyone can do after experiencing a rape is to remain silent about it, and this story explores how Melinda slowly destroys her life after it happens, then starts to rebuild it as she finds some way to deal with it. No one around her seems to even care about her, and she receives no help for most of the year. Her parents and teachers all assume she’s just being difficult. Her friends abandon her, and she has no support system through most of the book. Yet she endures, and even finds the courage to warn Rachel of the danger she’s in by dating Andy Evans. I wish no person ever had to go through such a nightmare, but I hope this book will encourage girls – or boys - to speak up if something like this ever happens to them. This is a cautionary tale that any child would benefit from reading as soon as they are old enough to deal with this subject matter, and I hope many parents out there encourage their teenagers to read this book.

Awards

2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award
American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults
American Library Association Quick Picks for Young Adults
Michael L. Printz Award - Honor; National Book Awards - Finalist
Books for the Teen Age, New York Public Library
Golden Kite Award for Fiction
Booklist Editors' Choice
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon Award
Horn Book Magazine Fanfare List
School Library Journal Best Books of the Year
California Young Reader Medal
Kentucky Blue Grass Award
PA Carolyn W. Field Award

Reviews

Booklist: "Anderson perfectly captures the harsh conformity of high-school cliques. . . . Melinda's sarcastic wit, honesty, and courage make her a memorable character whose ultimate triumph will inspire and empower readers."

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books: "Anderson doesn't overburden Melinda with insight or with artistic metaphors, . . . and readers will find it gratifying that not only does she undergo gradual emotional recovery, she also gets to trounce her attacker—and send him, in turn, into silence. The book is also keenly aware of the corrosive details of outsiderhood and the gap between home and daily life at high school; kids whose exclusion may have less concrete cause than Melinda's will nonetheless find the picture recognizable. This is a gripping account of personal wounding and recovery."

School Library Journal: "This powerful novel deals with a difficult yet important topic—rape. . . . Anderson expresses the emotions and the struggles of teenagers perfectly. Melinda's pain is palpable, and readers will totally empathize with her. This is a compelling book, with sharp, crisp writing that draws readers in, engulfing them in the story."

The Horn Book: "An uncannily funny book even as it plumbs the darkness, Speak will hold readers from first word to last."

Connections

Enrichment Activities

Book Reviews by Jamie Morris

Monday, August 8, 2011

Genre 6, Book 2: SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson

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