Review of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
By Andy Heath
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is one of the most haunting books I have read in a long time. It's about a high school girl that was raped by one of her classmates and then shunned by her peers.
The book is written in first person, present tense, which is difficult to get used to at first. But the protagonist, named Melinda, describes the pain she goes through at being shunned by her peers as well as remembering the rape. She essentially stops talking, and no one can figure out why because she refused to discuss the rape with anyone.
One of the things I really liked about this book is that I felt Ms. Anderson really captured the high school experience brilliantly. I have read other books where I felt that was not the case. But I could empathize with Melinda to a point – although I was never raped – but I did understand what it was like to be shunned by my peers.
In the book, Melinda finds that her only escape from life is art. She is responsible for making a tree throughout the semester in various ways, and her art teacher realizes she is quite talented. It is through art that she finds solace in the world and a way to get out of the daily pain she lives with.
There are a number of issues that Speak addresses, and one of them is the concept of teenage rape. I think we can all agree that no matter what kind of ending this book has, happy or not, there is no happy ending for a girl that is raped when she is a freshman in high school – or ever. That is why I would recommend every high school student read Speak. It was painful for me because part of the time I felt I was reliving the high school experience which was so hard, but it is a book that addresses such important themes for teenagers today.
