Speak

Fiction

By: Laurie Halse Anderson

Reviewed by Maddie Meagher

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

“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.”

After calling the cops to an end of the summer party, Melinda Sardino is going into High School hated, alone, and with a huge secret. She begins to realize that secrets carry a heavy burden, but she knows there is no one she can tell that will truly understand. She thinks it is only safe in her own brain, until she realizes that even there it is firepower, slowly pushing her to the point where she can no longer keep all these things she has to say to herself. Melinda needs to gather up all the courage she can find to tell someone; anyone, about what really happened at the party that night. Will Melinda summon up everything she has; finally being able to speak?

I absolutely adored this book. Speak is a unique story in the way that even though it is not a fast paced thriller, but more a real life, down to earth story, it still keeps you absolutely hooked the whole time. Laurie Halse Anderson writes with a sort of dark and witty humor, making the story an emotional roller coaster. I will be laughing one moment and crying the next, feeling what Melinda is feeling myself. I was especially able to connect with this story because I am about the same age as Melinda, and Anderson does an incredible job of portraying the thoughts of a girl that age. I would recommend this book to really anyone and everyone. More specifically I would say teens or anyone who can handle an emotional ride of a book. This story really makes you think about how you have no idea about what is going on in somebody’s life or brain, so you have no right to judge them based on what’s going on on the outside. It’s a look into someone’s life, and I can guarantee that you will not regret reading it.