lyoness913's Full Review: Laurie Halse Anderson - Speak
Laurie Halse Anderson’s first novel portrays the Darwinian-Like society that high-schoolers consciously or sub-consciously always seem to create. The main character, Melinda, is an abomination amongst her peers and loathes school and all of it’s cliques and social rules. She is the loser among losers. However, just a year before she was one of the popular kids, fitting in well in her peer group. This story touches upon the transformation of a young girl who got into some trouble she wasn’t looking for. Anderson does a very good job portraying the loneliness and isolation felt by the main character in her first novel. However, I felt she used too many stereotypes and she also left too many things unsolved.
The Story
Melinda is an outcast when she begins her first year of high school. Something happened during the summer, which made her extremely unpopular. The reader is unsure of the situation at first, but Anderson reveals more and more throughout the novel. After reading the first 10 pages I was fairly sure I knew what had happened.
Melinda was at a Senior party in the summer with some of her friends. She called the police for some reason and got a bunch of kids arrested. Everyone is angry with her, but they don’t know why she did it. She is also doing horribly bad in school. The only thing she enjoys is art, where her job is to create a tree with lots of feeling. Anderson uses, I think, too much symbolism when discussing Melinda’s art and her tree. But, we get the point.
Melinda meets Heather, a newbie from out of town. Heather is peppy and enthusiastic and really annoying. Heather basically uses Melinda because she hasn’t established herself in any of the popular cliques in school. Eventually, Heather becomes a ‘Martha’ (some kind of Martha Stuart loving clique) and she drops Melinda, so Melinda is left completely friendless.
Things aren’t great at home either. Melinda’s family rarely communicates with each other and there is a hint that they may be having affairs. We never do find this out though, which is one of the irritating unsolved mysteries in the book.
Gradually we learn that Melinda was raped by a Senior at the party in the summer. She never told anyone anything. The boy that raped her, whom she calls ‘IT’, begins to date her ex-best-friend. Will Melinda say something about the rape? Does she come clean? Can she help save another girl from the same fate?
My Thoughts
Anderson does a very good job of portraying the harsh environment some teens face. It’s no secret; kids can be cruel. She also draws empathy from the reader regarding Melinda’s situation. We want to scream for her. We want to cry. We understand her hatred for herself and her confusion over what happened.
‘Date rape’ is a very serious issue, especially among teens and young adults. Why do women feel so much shame and embarrassment over something that isn’t their fault? Why do many women not tell what’s happened or place blame on their perpetrators?
As a reader, we get into Melinda’s head and heart and it helps us to understand why she remains silent.
I just wish Anderson would have concluded a few things in the novel. We never find out what happens with Melinda’s family. We also never discover if Melinda gets any sort of help or if her family is supportive when they find out about her rape. I think that these are key problems that need to be solved, especially when you target an audience of young adults with such an important subject.
All in all, Speak was a good read. I think any young adult or adult would gain something from this novel. Bravo to Anderson.
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