Speak
“I know my head isn’t screwed on straight. I want to leave, transfer, warp myself to another galaxy. I want to confess everything, hand over the guilt and mistake and anger to someone else. There is a beast in my gut, I can hear it scraping away at the inside of my ribs. Even if I dump the memory, it will stay with me, staining me. My closest is a good thing, a quiet place that helps me hold these thoughts inside my head where no one can hear them.”
Melinda Sordino is going into high school with no friends and a bad secret. Everyone seems to hate her because she called the police to a party during the summer. She wishes she could tell her friends what happened to her that made her so traumatized. No one knows why she did it but the once good student and happy friend is now unhappy, quiet, and withdrawn. People torment her and her parents are too busy for her. Melinda doesn’t speak anymore unless absolutely needed. Nor does she take care of herself. With her social life gone and her grades low, Melinda finds comfort in art class. What secret is Melinda holding inside that she can’t tell? Can she ever recover and get help?
Speak is an emotionally gripping novel. It shows how hard it is to hold an untold secret inside you, a secret that tears you apart. It also shows how you don’t know what is going on in someone’s life and how they’re feeling. The way you treat people can impact there lives greatly. The book tells a story of what could actually happen. It tells the emotional, bitter truth and possibilities of life. Sometimes a past experience makes it hard to speak.
