Book Summary: In Speak, the main character Melinda has lots of troubles just in her first year of high school. She is alone, and depressed because of a certain someone who ruined almost everything about her. She used to have best friends, Nicole, Rachel, Ivy, and others, but because of one drunken night at a party she lost all of them. She gained one friend named Heather, but soon lost her because Heather believed she was depressed and didn’t want to be around someone like that. Melinda was raped by a senior who is known to every girl to be scum. All he wants is sex, and he’ll do anything to get it, as he proved at a party in August. One night can really ruin everything, and it did for Melinda.
Book Commentary: In my opinion, I really liked this book. It may sound depressing and all, but if you look past that, everything Melinda learns throughout just freshman year really makes whoever is reading the book think. She loses friends, gains them, and goes through so much with life at home, school, and her social life. She lets her self go, but realizes she didn’t die, and she needs to move past that. I agree and think she did the right thing, even if it was extremely hard. If you are someone who wants to learn something new about yourself, or just needs to open their eyes to reality, I think this book is a good read. It’s very descriptive on how things went in Melinda’s life, and I think people should hear her story because it was a powerful one that makes the reader think.