Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (Second Review)

SPEAK (Platinum Edition)
By Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2006
198 pages, paperback
Date Finished: 12/1/2011
Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Coming of Age, Serioius Issues

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...
~from goodreads.com~

~First Line: "It is my first morning of high school."
~Last Line: " 'Let me tell you about it.' "

Review: WOW! I have to start off with that word. I absolutely love this novel, and I'm glad that I spent my birthday money on it. It truly was worth it.

The main character, Melinda, was my favorite; of course, like every favorite character, there's a few things I would change. Although I understand why she stayed quiet about the whole unfortunate deal, I still would have told someone what happened.

I would say no real adventure, some action that terrible night at the party, and one time later in the novel that I won't spoil. The characters were well-written. My least favorite character -- well, not my least favorite, just one I didn't like all that much -- was Heather. In the beginning I loved her; then she tried to get with the Marthas and began using Melinda. NOT a good friend. Not someone I would hang with once I caught on to the fact that she never talks to me until she needs my help.

Overall -- before I start spoiling -- I really LOVED this novel, and for those of you who haven't read it yet, you really need to!



Quotes from the Book:

"She wears black stockings with runs and doesn't shave under her arms. She waves her hand in the air and you find yourself thinking of young chimpanzees."

"The other guys run drills and pass in to him. Brendan reaches up a skinny octopus tentacle and casually drops the ball through the hoop. Our boys are unbeatable as long as they are the only team on the floor."

"[In middle school] To tell someone you liked them, you had to use layers and layers of friends, as in 'Janet told me to tell you that Steven told me that Dougie said Carom was talking to April and she hinted that Sara's brother Mark has a friend named Tony who might like you. What are you going to do?'
It is easier to floss with barbed wire than admit you like someone in middle school."

"When I was in the sixth grade, my mom bought me all these books about puberty and adolescence, so I would appreciate what a 'beautiful' and 'natural' and 'miraculous' transformation I was going through. Crap. That's what it is. She complains all the time about her hair turning gray and her butt sagging and her skin wrinkling, but I'm supposed to be grateful for a face full of zits, hair in embarrassing places, and feet that grow an inch a night. Utter crap."

A Review That Speaks Loudl

Speak


By: Laurie Halse Anderson
Publisher:  Puffin
Pages:  198 Paperback
Rating: 5
Book Cover Rating:  5 (It truly fits the story.)
Read:  September 26, 2010
Genre:  Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Sexual Violence 


First Line: It is my first morning of high school.


Recommended by:   Wesley SCROGGINS


This book was recently attacked by Wesley Scroggins in an article.  The book blogging world is all up in arms over this article, creating a Speak Loudly Movement.  You should join in this outcry if you feel that your rights are being broached on by our dear friend Mr. Scroggins.


There is a particular part of his claim that had my eyebrows peak and my brain try to wrap around his intriguing statement, "required to read and view material that should be classified as soft pornography."  Soft porn?  This guy is considering rape to be soft porn?  WOW!  Let's get this out in the open right away, I am a twisted person who came over from the dark side, who reads books that contain sexual violence.  However, I would never ever consider rape to be porn.  That is even way to creepy for me... & that is saying allot.


Now on to the good stuff ~~ Warning, it is hard to not write this review without spoilers.  If you do not want spoilers please stop reading.  I do not want you to stop talking to me.~~


Melinda is our main character/narrator, her voice.  She dose not get much description but for me it was great. (For this book it works, many can relate and put herself in her shoes.)  We enter the book going into high school as a 9th grader.  High school can be the time for great memories but so far for our Melinda it is the time where no one talks to you and people throw mash potatoes at you.  I could not possible dare to begin how that would feel.  Just completely humiliating, too cruel.


Soon we find out that everyone scorns here because during the summer she calls the cops at a huge party were a few people get tossed in the slammer because of it.  Naturally now she has the bullseye of hate on her, even her friends classmates do not even speak to her.  If only they knew the reason why?  Speak Melinda.  She draws into herself, retreating from family, school, and people trying to be friends.  I must admit that I loved her closet, to have your own place to go and hide.


Anderson does not say out right what happened.  This taboo subject normally has people walking around what happened.  She did a good job with this while leaving clues.  Biology class is the biggest one that should ring bells.  I just love her wording here.

"Our frog lies on her back. Waiting for a prince to come and princessify her with a smooch? I stand over her with my knife. Ms. Keen's voice fades to a mosquito whine. My throat closes off. It's hard to breathe. I put out my hand to steady myself against the table. David pins her froggy hands to the dissection tray. He spreads her froggy legs and pins her froggy feet. I have to slice open her belly. She doesn't say a word. She is already dead. A scream starts in my gut - I can feel the cut, smell the dirt, leaves in my hair."

This book hit me, it is profound writing on a subject hard to touch because of society expectations.  I loved struggling with Melinda.  Watching her work on her tree subject for art, yelling at her to pour out her hate, fear, and hurt into the tree (of course only in my head).  Then there was this spark, she wrote on the bathroom wall.  Courageous of her.  What she wrote, not that she did.  That spark shot off as soon as there was a reply.  I almost cried when I read that.  Powerful statement, all on a smelly bathroom wall.


The ending closed so well.   Unbelievable.






5 - Loving Hugs.  




Thanks Scroggins for recommending such a unique book with a voice.  It will be re-read more then once.  Now I recommend it to everyone. 




A few Quotes:


"Next thing you know, she'll be drinking black coffee and reading books without pictures."


"My journal entry of the day: Exchange students are ruining our country."


"My goal is to go home and take a nap."

Wintergirls Book Review

Book Name: Wintergirls
Author/s: Laurie Halse Anderson
Language English
Original Title: Wintergirls
Publisher, year: Speak, 2010
Page total: 278
Date Read: June 26-27
Genre/s: YA, realistic fiction
First line of Book:"So she tells me, the words dribbling out with the cranberry muffin crumbs, commas dunked in her coffee."
Review:
" I took the knife out of my pocket and cut my palm, just a little. 'I swear to be the skinniest girl in school, skinnier than you.'
Cassie's eyes got big as the blood pooled in my hand. She grabbed the knife and slashed her palm. 'I bet I'll be skinnier than you.'
'No, don't make it a bet. Let's be skinniest together'.
'Okay, but I'll be skinnier.'"

'Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the multiple-award-winning Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.' - from Goodreads

I loved this book. It's dark, true and goes straight to the heart of the matter. LHA has that gift, not only with WINTERGIRLS but also with SPEAK. It is written in a very lyrical way and sometimes I found myself re-reading some parts and writing down the pages where they were, because it was just so beautiful and raw.

The way Lia thinks and sees the world is also very originally represented: with striked text to show what she doesn't allow herself to think, different fonts and sizes, sentences in italic where she has a flashback and numbers between parenthesis that represent the calories of whatever she put into her mouth.

Overall, this is a book I'll most definitely re-read and I feel that everyone should read this at least once in their lifetimes.

here's the book trailer:


LHA talks about WINTERGIRLS:

Rating: 5/5 kisses


Quotes from book:
"What do I want?
The answer to that question does not exist."

"Do I want to die from the inside out or the outside in?"

"I failed eating, failed drinking, failed not cutting myself into shreds. Failed friendship. Failed sisterhood and daughterhood. Failed mirrors and scales and phone calls. Good thing I'm stable. "

"I lift my arm out of the water. It's a log. Put it back under and it blows up even bigger. People see the log and call it a twig. They yell at me because I can't see what they see. Nobody can explain to me why my eyes work different than theirs. Nobody can make it stop. "

"I wish I had cancer. I will burn in hell for that, but it's true. "

"You’re not dead, but you’re not alive, either. You’re a wintergirl, Lia-Lia, caught in between the worlds. You’re a ghost with a beating heart. Soon you’ll cross the border and be with me. I’m so stoked. I miss you wicked.

“Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.
“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame. "