Speak

By Laurie Halse Anderson and Laurie Halse Halse Anderson

Juvenile Fiction : Social Issues - General

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Publication date: May 2011

ISBN: 9781429997041

Digital Book format: ePub (Adobe DRM)

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"Speak up for yourself - we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinds knows that 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 is 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. In this powerful novel, an utterly believeable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.