Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson
Review
The novel by Laurie Halse Anderson Speak is an empowering story of a girl who suffers a traumatizing experience while at a party with her friends who then abandon her after she calls the police to an end-of-summer party. After reading this book I felt inspired and satisfied with my choice of picking up this decent sized text.
The reader is taken through the pitiful struggle of protagonist, Melinda Sordino, as she is bullied and challenged on a regular basis after a school wide misunderstanding putting her in the frying pan of all of her schoolmates. Melinda catches attention of classmate Andy Evans who on few occasions reaches out and helps Melinda. When reading this book I was very intrigued about how Anderson structured the whole situation of Melinda Sordino. Anderson made sure to not ramble on, leave multiple cliffhangers or stray away from the scheme of things but she also manages to stick to the point, to have the reader inferring and putting two and two together. I’d say that the strongest part of this book is the writing. The way everything was phrased the reader could see this image being painted in their head with every sentence given. There were minor weaknesses though, such as the vocabulary. I understand this novel is not a very high reading level but that shouldn't restrain one from utilizing a broad vocabulary.
Speak in itself is a moving novel in which the reader will be enthralled with every page they turn. I would recommend this book to anyone who has any spare time on their hands. It isn't an immensely lengthy story but in there is an exceptional story within the pages given.