Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Imagine starting high school with no friends, feeling hopeless, and having everyone hate you for doing right thing. Just think about how you would survive in high school. In the novel, “Speak”, the author, Laurie Halse Anderson, writes about a young girl who starts high school not how most teens would imagine it. Through characters and connections, you can really see yourself in her shoes.

To begin with, the characters in this novel are what keeps your eyes on the pages. Melinda is the character that goes through many hardships throughout the whole novel. Her hardships had started the summer before freshmen year. Unexpectedly, at a party, a senior named Andy Evans had gotten her drunk, and oddly Melinda was okay with that. Andy Evans was the type of person looks for girls and tried to put them in a bad situation. He was the boy that ruined everything for Melinda. Because of him, Melinda wouldn’t have called the police at the party. Andy had raped Melinda while drunk, which caused Melinda to call the cops, and after that night everyone started to hate her. Rachel/Rachelle was Melinda’s former best friend, the only person Melinda was open to. Having her best friend practically her was probably the worst thing for her. Another important character in the novel is Heather, who was her close friend at one point and later on told her that she no longer wants to be friends with her and admits that they are very different on page 105, “ We were never really, really friends, were we? I mean, it’s not like I ever slept over at your house or anything. We like to do different things. I have my modeling, and I like to shop…” Another character that plays a somewhat big part in Melinda’s life is David Petrakis, who Melinda has a slight crush on.

Getting to know the characters in any novel or book can often lead you to think about people in reality that you may know. By doing this you can also connect characters and situations in the novel to your real life experiences and experiences of others. A lot of people, more than you have probably expected, have gone through experiences, not exactly what had happened in the novel, but somewhat near to what Melinda had gone through. Many teens could be in a bad situation and do the right thing for themselves, but what they don't know is the effect of other people. Like in the novel, Melinda had done the right thing to call the police, but later realized, because of her actions, she loses all of her friends. This definitely happens in reality, especially when something bad happens to other people, that they might of not liked it. Other experiences are starting off high school with no friends. This could happen if you are probably new to the school or did something bad like what Melinda had done that caused her to lose all her friends. Another connection in the novel is the lack of true friends. If Melinda's friends were really true, they would have been always by their side in a bad situation like what she was going through. Many people today also lack of having true friends. Someone could be in the worst possible situation and your friend would do whatever it would take to stay out of it and not help you get through, this shows that this person is definitely not a true friend and that you should not trust him or her.


Overall, Laurie Halse Anderson wrote a great novel about a typical girl going through a hard time. Going through high school through Melinda’s eyes is truly a nightmare vision of what most teans fear. Through characters and connections you can visualize what Melinda had gone through.