17 reviewssorted by Newest
LOVE LOVE LOVEEE
i love this book so much, it portrays perfectly how after experiencing something traumatic people struggle to speak up even to those who they love and trust the most. i wish i read the book before i watched the movie, i definitely recommend this book, and to those saying how this is inappropriate for teens, it’s isn’t. your children can’t be babied all the time, in life you can’t sugarcoat. rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, are real things that happen to people everyday. teach your kids to be better. don’t raise them to be like IT.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Just amazing
I just finished reading this amazing book and wanted to share a few thoughts I had (without any spoilers). This book was super emotional and very close to what actually goes on in real life. How this book clearly demonstrates what goes through a girl's mind when something this tragic happens just blows my breath away in how the author was able to incorporate it in this amazing story. Speaking as a victim, I can heavily relate and connect to this book as if it were my own life. There were times where I had to take a couple of breaks due to the fact it was triggering for me and brought those old feelings back up. But overall, LOVED, this book with all my heart and it really helps others know how traumatic these events in our lives can be. Thank you so much for reading. Have a lovely rest of your day.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
amazing storytelling
I loved reading it was nice but also depressing. But overall a nice book
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Read This Book For School
I really love this book i read it for a english project and fell in love with it i don’t have a copy of the book…yet but i am considering buying it eventually.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Deserves a broad audience
Speak is considered Young Adult but also would be appreciated by adults. Narrated in the first person, the immediacy of Melinda's point of view drew me in immediately and I could get a sense of her hidden pain through the snark and observations of her new high school experience. Through her inner voice we understand the chokehold that her trauma has on her internally, as well as how she is repeatedly victimized by others who don't have an interest in truly listening to her. Even at home, she is largely unseen and unheard. I loved how the author created so much empathy for her but still kept a light touch. The literary parallel between Melinda exploring her voice through the creation of art and Melinda eventually owning and expressing the event that traumatized her was deftly handled. Instead of leaving the reader with a sense of hopelessness, we walk with Melinda through the darkness of her experience and come out with a sense of control being restored, even though the trauma cannot be fully erased. The central themes are also reflected in the life of the school: teachers and students struggling against each other when it comes to points of view, students trying to invent a new persona for themselves in order to be different, speaking up becoming a type of solidarity. This novel deserves a very broad audience.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Absorbing, effective, important
This is a touching, effective, absorbing story of a young girl shunned by her friends, ignored by her parents and misunderstood by her teachers until one teacher finally breaks through. In the midst of the young girl's pain, she has flashes of humor, and her intelligent observations are right on point. Anyone who has felt alone, in high school or anywhere, will immediately understand her story.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
UTS AMAZING
the movie n this book>
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
The Struggle in Silence
Speak by Laurie Halse is a wonderful book that demonstrates the pain in silence. Speak is structured as a series of diary entries written by the main character Melinda, a freshman in high school. It feels very authentic to the reader although the vocabulary was honestly boring. I thought when going into this book, since it was labeled for highschoolers, I would be met or maybe challenged with the language. The topics hit home for me and felt very relatable, but the book moved very slowly. Time to time I felt myself wanting to skip pages, and even after doing so it felt like I had missed nothing. Despite that, I loved the book’s emotional depth. To get a little personal, I’m very emotional and through this book I felt understood. I also enjoyed the reoccurring symbolism, which I believe is one of the factors of its higher reading level. Regardless of the lack of diction, it invoked deep thought. Even after I was done reading for the day, the impact and emotion weight of Melinda’s story stayed with me. Ultimately, I enjoyed the book and only wish I had read it sooner.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com