Speak

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. 1999. 198p. ISBN 978-0-374-37152-4. Available at FIC AND on the library shelves.

Melinda has always been engaged with her friends and family. During the summer before 9th grade, however, she attends a barn party with her friend Rachel, has too much to drink, and is raped by an incoming senior who attends Merryweather High. In pain and in a panic, she called 911 but was not able to speak in the phone due to shock. Her friend Rachel found her and realized that she had called the police. The party broke up and everyone ran away, including Melinda. Now she’s the only one, along with her aggressor, that knows what the real reason for the 911 call was. Her friends all think she simply wanted to ruin everyone else’s fun.

Ostracized by her friends and feeling like damaged goods, Melinda must find a way to survive her freshman year at school. Art is the only subject that offers her a ray of sunshine in an otherwise tedious and depressing day. Even her parents have noticed the change in her, but don’t know how to reach her. Melinda refuses to communicate her problems and her needs, and the only friend she makes, Heather, eventually drifts away as well. As the year progresses, will Melinda rediscover her own voice?

Melinda provides a contrasting response to a very traumatic event than Hermione did in Exit, Pursued by a Bear. Both teens are strong in their own ways, but Melinda interiorizes her assault and does not possess the confidence to actively deal with it and the rumors that swirl around that fateful evening. But in the end she finds her voice and, like Hermione, is able to talk about it. Readers who appreciated Melinda’s strength should also look up Naked, the story of a teenage prostitute who ran away from home and is now trying to reintegrate school two years later.