Speak

by Laurie Halse Anderson

[readingwithwrin]

“You have to know what you stand for, not just what you stand against.”

The first time I ever heard of Speak was from watching the movie. I've watched the movie a handful of times since then and it always gets to me, so when I finally picked up this book I knew kind of what to expect.
I've waited almost a year to write this review just so I can get my thoughts together so I'm sorry if I miss any details.
Speak is a novel that shows Melinda who is a survivor of rape and how her life has changed since it happened.
Melinda is a sarcastic character that is also really realistic with what happens in high school. She mentions the things that are lies, and the things that are actually true. I just really enjoyed her take on it and the friends she did make. I also loved seeing her starting to come back out of her shell and starting to be interested in things again with the help of a teacher.
This book is also full of very tough moments though. When the rapist is in the same area as Melinda we feel how tense she is and Anderson did such a good job of making me feel like I was right there with her. We also see Melinda's home life which isn't the greatest at the moment.

Overall I loved this book just as much as the movie and both are so so good. The movie includes a lot of the book which was so nice to see. The things that were changed made sense to me and really helped get the point of the story across more.
I now can't wait to read more of what Anderson writes.