Review: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

“It's easier not to say anything. Shut your trap, button your lip, can it. All that crap you hear on TV about communication and expressing feelings is a lie. Nobody really wants to hear what you have to say.” 
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak


So I've had this book on my shelf forever. And I feel so ashamed for watching the movie before the book, it sort of destroys the experience of reading it when you know everything that's going to happen. But I have to say I loved both equally. L.H. Anderson's writing was flawless, which totally drew me in despite knowing what was coming.
I'm sure, since this is not only a classic, but an award winning book, that many know the story. L.H.A never holds back (so I'm told) on the deep and dark parts in her book. This story was about a 9th grader who was shunned by everyone after calling the cops at her best friends end of summer party. She is the outcast, and in discovering that no one cares what she has to say, she doesn't say anything. Grades slipping, no friends, nothing to say, and no one asks why?
It's a hearbreakingly real story, no one wants to know, and you're afraid to tell, blaming yourself. If anyone bothered to ask why she called the cops, she may have shared. She was raped, by a senior who happens to be dating her ex-bestfriend Rachel. Art is Melinda's salvation, her teacher giving her the task of drawing trees from her soul. Throughout the book you see how Melinda begins to grow, making friends with her lab partner, and finally talking to Rachel...hoping to protect her friend from the boy she knows is under the charming exterior. After the other students find out of what happened the night of the party Melinda has a sense of freedom, she's happier, accepts to go out with her new friend. Until IT finds her...again. This time she fights back, and gets away.
Since I saw the movie first, I will say the book was very similar, the only thing I HATED was the in the movie he raped her in his car, but in the book it was in the forest under the trees. Considering the symbolism and importance of trees throughout this entire story, you'd think they'd atleast get that right..this is why you always read the book first.

“I have never heard a more eloquent silence.” 
― Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak