Post by Absinthe on Feb 25, 2008 13:40:23 GMT -6
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
This is not a new book. It was originally published in 1999, so it isn't terribly old either. However, it is a book that has stayed with me from the very first time I read it way back in middle school. I've read it numerous times since, and reading it again for my Young Adult Lit and Media class this semester prompted me to write a review.
Speak is the story of Melinda Sordina, a girl entering her freshman year of highschool "with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. . . [she is] Outcast." You find out rather early on that after a summer party at which she called the police, Melinda has been abandoned by her friends and singled out by her peers. What nobody knows is that something happened to her at that party. Something that has caused her to curl in on herself and only speak when absolutely necessary, otherwise remaining completely mute. Through many trials, Melinda must learn to overcome her obstacles and face her trauma head on, finally learning to speak again.
Anderson, by technical standards of grammar and writing, is no literary genius. However, through her stream-of-conscious style and brash honesty, she portrays Melinda perfectly as a female adolescent struggling to survive. Melinda is a character I have never been able to forget. She is so poignantly written and so heart-wrenchingly spot-on that she leaves an impression.
I would recommend this book to anyone. It is a must read in all senses of the term.
This is not a new book. It was originally published in 1999, so it isn't terribly old either. However, it is a book that has stayed with me from the very first time I read it way back in middle school. I've read it numerous times since, and reading it again for my Young Adult Lit and Media class this semester prompted me to write a review.
Speak is the story of Melinda Sordina, a girl entering her freshman year of highschool "with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. . . [she is] Outcast." You find out rather early on that after a summer party at which she called the police, Melinda has been abandoned by her friends and singled out by her peers. What nobody knows is that something happened to her at that party. Something that has caused her to curl in on herself and only speak when absolutely necessary, otherwise remaining completely mute. Through many trials, Melinda must learn to overcome her obstacles and face her trauma head on, finally learning to speak again.
Anderson, by technical standards of grammar and writing, is no literary genius. However, through her stream-of-conscious style and brash honesty, she portrays Melinda perfectly as a female adolescent struggling to survive. Melinda is a character I have never been able to forget. She is so poignantly written and so heart-wrenchingly spot-on that she leaves an impression.
I would recommend this book to anyone. It is a must read in all senses of the term.
