Book Review: Speak

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson

This young adult novel is hitting its 20th anniversary this year, and it is considered a classic for its subject matter -- sexual assault against girls.

Mel is a freshman at Merryweather High School. She is an outcast among her former friends because she called police during an end-of-the-summer party, which meant everyone got into trouble. But Mel never explains why she dialed 911. Instead, she clams up, not speaking or defending herself.

Slowly, throughout the story, we learn why. She was raped by a  classmate, a popular, good-looking senior at the high school. Mel's reaction is depression, silence, and withdrawal from her family and friends, who all reject her.

"I am an outcast," she said early in the novel.

She keeps a journal to witness her fellow students and record some of her thoughts. The book is her journal.

It's written simply, mimicking a young girl's thoughts and ideas. It's witty in its observations. Her comments on teachers and student groups, and the school's continuing efforts to change its nickname, are well done. Her descriptions of the lunchroom drama, and the student's daily interactions with teachers and each other, can be  laugh-out-loud funny. Mel's inner thoughts and connections with other students are sad and worthy of tears.

But the novel's flaw is it has the one well-developed character. And that's kind of OK, because the book is so much about Mel -- and it is, after all, her journal. But except for one girl who tries to befriend her, and an art teacher is a good guy, all of the other characters are one-dimensional. Her parents, most of the teachers, the principal, and the others students are stereotypes, broadly drawn -- some deliberately so. Each seems to be more about Mel's dislike of school and adults than about the individuals.

Even the young man who commited the crime against her is your standard issue rapist -- charming, domineering, and vile,

Again, that is OK. The story is Mel's story, not anyone else's. Because she doesn't speak, this is her voice. And in this book, that is what matters.