- This book is on the chopping block in Republic, MO.
- I decided I wanted to read this book and support both its message and the author.
- Room by Emma Donoghue (Adult)
- Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesia by Gabrielle Zevin
- Once Was Lost by Sara Zarr
Summary from GoodReads:
Since the beginning of the school year, high school freshman Melinda has found that it’s been getting harder and harder for her to speak out loud: “My throat is always sore, my lips raw…. Every time I try to talk to my parents or a teacher, I sputter or freeze…. It’s like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis.” What could have caused Melinda to suddenly fall mute? Could it be due to the fact that no one at school is speaking to her because she called the cops and got everyone busted at the seniors’ big end-of-summer party? Or maybe it’s because her parents’ only form of communication is Post-It notes written on their way out the door to their nine-to-whenever jobs. While Melinda is bothered by these things, deep down she knows the real reason why she’s been struck mute…
Laurie Halse Anderson’s first novel is a stunning and sympathetic tribute to the teenage outcast. The triumphant ending, in which Melinda finds her voice, is cause for cheering (while many readers might also shed a tear or two). After reading Speak, it will be hard for any teen to look at the class scapegoat again without a measure of compassion and understanding for that person–who may be screaming beneath the silence.
My Review:
There is a reason I put off reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. I didn’t know if I could handle it, didn’t know if it would bring back memories and make them fresh again.
Melinda was me. Much younger, yes – but I felt her pain. I did not speak out, not for a long time. My relationships, my emotions.. my life was impacted by an event I felt guilt and shame over for a long time – and I still struggle with those same emotions.
I turned to video games – to MMORPGs such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft to hide, to live in a virtual reality where I could be a different person. I lost my sense of self-worth. I’m still looking for it at times, but more times than not these days I value myself. I still have bad days, days where, like Melinda, I want to hide in a closet and surround myself with symbols that represent comfort and peace.
I’m crying as I write this, because there are no words that I feel comfortable enough to say, because I know that I still need healing. But I am saying something, more than I’ve said in the past and with all the seriousness that the subject matter deserves. I normally brush it off, refuse to acknowledge it for what it was. I wasn’t doing that as I read Melinda’s story and it felt fresh and real and desperate to me.
This isn’t a book that should be banned. This is a book that should be read by every teenager and adult. Not because it’s a fashionable story, or because it’s a book that should stun the literary world with it’s beautiful, flowing prose – this isn’t that kind of book. This is a book that makes YOU be that person; YOU feel the way Melinda felt; YOU understand that you aren’t alone.
Rape is not something that should be hidden away and made into a taboo subject to be talked about years later in the office of a psychologist. Rape is something that should be talked about so much that a teen is able to recognize what it is as it starts, happens and ends. It should be something every teen is comfortable in discussing with their parents and approaching the proper authorities about when, God forbid, it happens. This isn’t your typical “sex-talk”. This is abuse, pain and something that is very, very capable of destroying someone’s life. Don’t shut this book up, listen to it.
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