Review: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

This book is from my most recent book haul. I decided to buy this, because I had seen a lot of good buzz about it on Goodreads and Booktube, and it seemed like an interesting read. 

It is about a girl who starts high school as a social pariah, because she called the cops on a party and tons of people got busted for underage drinking. Her friends have all ditched her, and everyone else treats her like a leper. 

Beware of spoiler-ey bits below!

During the story there are a few hints about what happened at the party, but it is pretty easy to figure out from the beginning. It is confirmed quite late in the book, when Melinda finally allows herself to think about it.

She is scared to tell anyone about what happened, and she pretty much stops talking altogether. She manages to get one new friend, Heather, who is the new girl in school and apparently doesn’t know anything about the party. The friendship mostly comes together because of Heather’s tenacity, and it turns out it is mostly a friendship of convenience for Heather. As soon as she finds someone better to hang out with, she ditches Melinda too. 

All through the school year Melinda just wants to belong and have friends again, but because she is too afraid to tell anyone what happened, she is treated as the social outcast. Towards the end of the year she finally begins to accept what happened and try to move on. When Heather approaches her to enlist her help for a project, Melinda says no. Having a fake friend is no longer a priority to her, she would rather stay true to herself. She also finally tries to tell someone about what happened, but the person does not believe her. Not at first at least, but things finally come to a turning point, when Melinda is attacked and decides to defend herself and speak up. 

I liked that Melinda started to stand up for herself in small ways and accept some things about herself, before the turning point. I think it shows that she took control of her own life, instead of just letting things happen to her. As for the other characters we don’t really get to know anyone else much. We only hear about them from Melinda’s point of view, and as she is very often alone, there are few opportunities to get to know anyone else. We hear a bit about her former friends and some tidbits about Heather, but mostly the other students are just presented as one big anonymous mass, with a few faces sticking out now and again. 

Generally I liked the book. I read it in one day, as it is quite short and well-written, so it just flows. It reminded me very much of “Some Girls Are” by Courtney Summers. It has a similar subject material, so if you like one book, you will like the other. But perhaps don’t read them too close to each other as they are very similar. 

I gave the book 3 stars out of 5 on Goodreads.