The release date for the English version of 'Speak' by
Laurie Halse Anderson is Jan 2019. If you enjoy this novel, it is available for buy as a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Indigo, as an ebook on the Amazon Kindle store, or as an audiobook on Audible.
The 10 falsehoods you are told in high school.
"Speak up for yourself—we want to know what you have to say."
Melinda learns early on in her freshman year at Merryweather High that this is a huge giant lie and just one more example of the absurdities associated with high school. Since she called the police to disrupt a summer party, she has lost all of her friends and is now an outsider. No one would even speak to her or listen to her. She basically stops communicating as time goes on and becomes more and more alone. The only comfort she receives is from her art class, and it is by working on an art piece that she is ultimately able to confront the truth about what had transpired at that awful party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a person who continues to attend Merryweather and poses a danger to her. She had barely started her mending process when she gets into another violent altercation with him. However, Melinda fights back this time, doesn't keep quiet, and feels somewhat vindicated as a result.
An entirely convincing girl with a sharply sardonic voice strikes a blow to the hypocritical high school environment in Laurie Halse Anderson's compelling book. She highlights the value of standing up for oneself while speaking for a lot of disenfranchised teenagers.
Speak was a 1999 Young People's Literature National Book Award Finalist.