Speak

by Laurie Halse Anderson

As you may have read, I haven't been doing much reading for personal pleasure lately as I've instead been focusing on going back to school and work. However I have been doing a ton of reading thanks to classes and due to my Young Adult Lit class, I've been reading a ton of literature that as you've probably guessed is for young adults. Or as they are more commonly called: teenagers. Now if you're of the age that you can actually remember what you read in high school and late middle school, such as myself, you'll probably remember reading Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Much Ado about Nothing, The Scarlet Letter, The Odyssey, and etc and etc. Now with the exception of perhaps The Scarlet Letter, which deals with a young girl being labeled as an “adulterer”, most of these works have little appeal or emotional value to this new generation of teenager that is constantly exposed sex and its respective positive and negative aspects, drugs, and rock n' roll. Well not so much rock n' roll anymore, more like pop and rap which is actually worse then old time rock n' roll, but that's another digression for another day. Back to my point, teenagers nowadays are exposed to so much more then even someone from my generation was, and I was only in high school less then a decade ago. As a result they need a new type of literature that actually speaks to them and allows them to connect with it, unlike the literature that I mentioned above which has failed to do so. Which brings me to my first book review in nearly two months, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Speak tells the story of Melinda, a high school freshman who finds it hard to speak both at home and in school, as her parents communicate with her via Post-it notes and with the exception of a new girl, her classmates don't talk to her at all. Only things weren't always like this. Sure her family life wasn't always the best with both of her parents working long hours, but she did have friends. Friends with whom she talked to. Friends with whom she shared secrets with. Friends with whom she could count on. But after she called the cops at a party during the summer, all of those great friends abandoned her in a instant. Why? Will she regain her voice? Will her friends come back to her? Well that's for you to find out and for me to know.

I have to say that although Speak is a very traumatic and real book about the ____ of a young girl, it is an absolutely amazing book. Laurie tells Melinda's story over the course of one school year, using each marking period as a divider with smaller chapters making up each division. Even though Melinda has no real voice throughout the novel, Laurie uses Melinda's inner voice and thoughts to tell her story. Laurie's use of powerful imagery and metaphor throughout the novel only further helps convey the mixed emotions and trauma that Melinda experiences.

Overall while you can chew threw this book in probably one sitting, it is a young adult novel after all, this is still a overall great book and one that should be read by both the young and old. With that said 5 out of 5 DAWG Bones. Woof!

Next up The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie