Speak, published in 1999, is a young adult novel by Laurie Halse Anderson that tells the story of high school freshman Melinda Sordino. This expression slowly helps Melinda acknowledge what happened, face her problems, and recreate her identity.

Speak is considered a problem novel, or trauma novel. Melinda's story is written in a diary format, consisting of a nonlinear plot and jumpy narrative that mimics the trauma she experienced. However, the book has faced censorship for its mature content.

Speak: The Graphic Novel, illustrated by Emily Carroll, was published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux February 6, 2018. A 20th anniversary version of the novel featuring additional content was released in 2019 alongside the author's memoir, Shout.

Synopsis

The summer before her freshman year of high school, Melinda Sordino meets senior Andy Evans at a high school party, who rapes her while she is drunk. Melinda immediately calls 9-1-1, but her shock renders her unable to speak and she flees to go home. The police arrive and break up the party, and several people are arrested. When word spreads that Melinda called the police, she becomes ostracized by her peers and abandoned by her friends.

During the first marking period, Melinda is befriended by Heather, a girl from Ohio who is new to the community. Heather cuts ties with Melinda in favor of the "Marthas," a group of popular girls that end up being toxic, selfish and cruel. Heather realises this and eventually returns to Melinda, asking for help. As Melinda's depression worsens, she begins to skip school, withdrawing from her distant, neglectful parents and other authority figures. She is scolded for this, as her grades are suffering the consequences. She slowly befriends her lab partner, David Petrakis, who encourages her to speak up for herself.

Melinda summons the courage to tell her former best friend Rachel, who has been dating Andy, about what happened at the party. While Rachel initially does not believe Melinda, she realizes that this is the truth on prom night after Andy gropes her. Enraged at Melinda for exposing him, Andy attacks her in an abandoned janitor's closet. Melinda screams and fights back, attracting the attention of fellow students. When word spreads about Andy's assaults against Melinda, the students no longer treat her as an outcast, but rather as a hero. Melinda finally regains her voice and tells her story to her art teacher.

Narrative style

Speak is written for young adults and middle/high school students. Labeled a problem novel, it centers on a character who gains the strength to overcome her trauma. According to author Chris McGee, Melinda is more than a victim. Melinda feels guilty, even though she was a victim of sexual assault. Yet, by seeing other victims, like Rachel, Melinda is able to speak. and the 2000 Golden Kite Award. It was also selected as a 2000 ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Barbara Tannert-Smith, author of "Like Falling Up Into a Storybook: Trauma and Intertextual Repetition in Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak.", claims the story's ability to speak the reader's language brought about its commercial success. Ned Vizzini, for The New York Times, calls it "different", "a grittily realistic portrait of sexual violence in high school." Author Don Latham calls Speak "painful, smart, and darkly comic".

  • 1999 BCCB Blue Ribbon Book
  • 2000 SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Fiction
  • 2000 Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of the Year
  • 2000 ALA Best Books for Young Adults
  • 2000 Printz Honor Book
  • 2000 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults
  • 2000 Fiction Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
  • 2000 Edgar Allan Poe Best Young Adult Award Finalist
  • 2001 New York Times Paperback Children's Best Seller
  • 2005 New York Times Paperback Children's Best Seller

Censorship

Speaks difficult subject matter has led to censorship of the novel. Speak is ranked 60th on the ALA's list of Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books for 2000–2009 and 25th for 2010–2019. In 2020, the book was named the fourth most banned and challenged book in the United States "because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel's inclusion of rape and profanity."

In September 2010, Wesley Scroggins, a professor at Missouri State University, wrote an article, "Filthy books demeaning to Republic education", in which he claimed that Speak, along with Slaughterhouse-Five and Twenty Boy Summer, should be banned for "exposing children to immorality". Scroggins claimed that Speak should be "classified as soft pornography" and, therefore, removed from high school English curriculum.

In the 2006 Platinum Edition of Speak, and on her blog, Laurie Halse Anderson spoke out against censorship. Anderson wrote:

In her scholarly monograph, Laurie Halse Anderson: Speaking in Tongues, Wendy J. Glenn claims that Speak "has generated more academic response than any other novel Anderson has written." Despite hesitancy to teach a novel with "mature subject matter," English teachers are implementing Speak in the classroom as a study of literary analysis, as well as tool to teach students about sexual harassment. The novel gives students the opportunity to talk about several teen issues, including: school cliques, sex, and parental relationships. According to Janet Alsup, teaching Speak in the classroom, can help students become more critically literate. Speak provides an outlet for students to think critically about their world.