From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether.
Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication.
A timeless novel about consent and finding the courage to speak up for yourself, the twentieth anniversary edition of the classic novel that has spoken to so many young adults now includes a new introduction written and read by acclaimed writer, host, speaker, and cultural commentator Ashley C. Ford as well as an afterword written and read by New York Times-bestselling author of All American Boys and Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds. This edition will also feature an updated Q&A, resource list, and essay and poem written and read by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Praise for Speak:
“In a stunning first novel, Anderson uses keen observations and vivid imagery to pull readers into the head of an isolated teenager. . . . Will leave readers touched and inspired.”
―Publishers Weekly, starred review
“An uncannily funny book even as it plumbs the darkness, Speak will hold readers from first word to last.”
―The Horn Book, starred review
Accolades for Speak:
New York Times Bestseller
Publishers Weekly Bestseller
Michael L. Printz Honor Book
National Book Award Finalist
Edgar Allan Poe Award Finalist
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults
ALA Quick Pick
Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
Booklist Top Ten First Novel
BCCB Blue Ribbon Book
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether.
Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication.
A timeless novel about consent and finding the courage to speak up for yourself, the twentieth anniversary edition of the classic novel that has spoken to so many young adults now includes a new introduction written and read by acclaimed writer, host, speaker, and cultural commentator Ashley C. Ford as well as an afterword written and read by New York Times-bestselling author of All American Boys and Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds. This edition will also feature an updated Q&A, resource list, and essay and poem written and read by Laurie Halse Anderson.
Praise for Speak:
“In a stunning first novel, Anderson uses keen observations and vivid imagery to pull readers into the head of an isolated teenager. . . . Will leave readers touched and inspired.”
―Publishers Weekly, starred review
“An uncannily funny book even as it plumbs the darkness, Speak will hold readers from first word to last.”
―The Horn Book, starred review
Accolades for Speak:
New York Times Bestseller
Publishers Weekly Bestseller
Michael L. Printz Honor Book
National Book Award Finalist
Edgar Allan Poe Award Finalist
Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults
ALA Quick Pick
Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
Booklist Top Ten First Novel
BCCB Blue Ribbon Book
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
Critiques-
-
Melinda is an unlikely heroine--withdrawn and friendless. She even forgets to wash her hair. She is appropriately complicated for a high-school freshman grappling with feeling alone, grasping for originality, and hiding a terrible secret that has stifled her voice. Anderson's words often seem gleaned directly from a confused teenager's soul, and only occasionally do Melinda's thoughts sound too much like arch cultural commentary to be genuine. Mandy Siegfried has the right weary tone; as Melinda, she is lamenting, resigned, self-loathing, and at times as bleak as a Syracuse winter. But there's life in her cynical observations of her peers, teachers and parents, and in her fleeting feeling of sanctuary in art class. By the end, listeners will be urging Melinda to act, to open her compulsively chewed, scarred lips and speak. J.M.D. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine
-
January 1, 2002
PW said of this stunning first novel narrated by a rape survivor, "Anderson infuses the narrative with a wit that sustains the heroine through her pain and holds readers' empathy." Ages 12--up. -
Starred review from October 25, 1999
In a stunning first novel, Anderson uses keen observations and vivid imagery to pull readers into the head of an isolated teenager. Divided into the four marking periods of an academic year, the novel, narrated by Melinda Sordino, begins on her first day as a high school freshman. No one will sit with Melinda on the bus. At school, students call her names and harass her; her best friends from junior high scatter to different cliques and abandon her. Yet Anderson infuses the narrative with a wit that sustains the heroine through her pain and holds readers' empathy. A girl at a school pep rally offers an explanation of the heroine's pariah status when she confronts Melinda about calling the police at a summer party, resulting in several arrests. But readers do not learn why Melinda made the call until much later: a popular senior raped her that night and, because of her trauma, she barely speaks at all. Only through her work in art class, and with the support of a compassionate teacher there, does she begin to reach out to others and eventually find her voice. Through the first-person narration, the author makes Melinda's pain palpable: "I stand in the center aisle of the auditorium, a wounded zebra in a National Geographic special." Though the symbolism is sometimes heavy-handed, it is effective. The ending, in which her attacker comes after her once more, is the only part of the plot that feels forced. But the book's overall gritty realism and Melinda's hard-won metamorphosis will leave readers touched and inspired. Ages 12-up.
