Speak

Beautiful drawing, haunting story. We all know how high school can be a hell on earth, but for Melinda, it’s even worse. She’s the school pariah, after she called the cop on a party last summer, making everyone in the school resent her. What they didn’t know was what really happened to Melinda. Her parents were not helping either. Both mom and dad drowned in work, too busy in the rat race of life to notice that their only daughter suddenly became depressed, failed in her subjects, isolating herself and losing all her friends. It’s really a tale as old as time, how tough it is to be a nobody in high school, and nobody would even trust your words, even if you open your mouth and speak

Haunting. No other words.

A stunning adaptation of an incredible, important novel

It was such an engaging book and shows the emotional aspect of rape/sexual assault accurately. I recommend anyone to read this!

Such a powerful novel that I think EVERYONE should read.

3.5 stars Everyone seems to love this book and I feel like a weird loner, the only person on earth who doesn't. It was just okay for me. I really tried, but I just couldn't get to the point of actually liking it.

4.5⭐️ opening line: 3/10 this is hard to review as of the heavy topics it discusses. the writing is brilliant. first I was very bored by it but I realized that it reflects Melinda perfectly- everyone sees her as this boring, weird girl who doesn’t speak. I had exactly this feeling reading it. Originally I choose this book for a book presentation in middle school and now I finally picked it up again, and I realized, like it was with the writing, that this book is so much more than the awful thing that happened to Melinda in the beginning, that it shows the flaws of highschool (especially in America) and the people there. I give this book “only” 4.5⭐️ because it was hard to get through, as of the writing AND the topic ofc. I will never read this again. It was great but a book like this can be read one time only (as it is for me) and I just can’t give it the full five. Nevertheless BRILLIANT, I wished I had finished this sooner

heart aching. could not stop reading.

Speak was already a great book. It's even better as a graphic novel. The way art is interwoven into the story becomes even more meaningful with the visual medium. The emotions are even more raw when seen as well as read. Each character has more soul and every relationship becomes more complex. It's amazing how you can see the power of a person finding her voice and learning to speak for herself.

Speak is a slight volume that packs a powerful gut punch. As I read, I kept seeing the faces of my students through the leaves of Melinda's tree. It is my hope that young people who need it find this book and through it find their own voice to speak.

I thought the author did a good job expressing the heroins feelings. Usually in books like this the author will only talk about the physical harm its done and never the mental harm so thats what i like about the book. i think it was very realistic to today. and i think she did a good job interpreting todays youth and not trying to assume how they feel.

It was boring and hard to get into, but it had a good ending and it did mean something in the end. But it just made me mad how she reacted, until she finally did something for herself

A story that absolutely deserves to be heard on a subject that has still nit been given the importance it deserves! I didn’t connect with the characters the way I would have hoped and at times it felt a bit generic but overall still a good read.

I'm a member of this fantastic book club on Facebook. Each month we have four (sometimes five) picks. Some of them are specific titles, most of the time those come from The Book of the Month Club's main 5 selections each month. Other books are reader-picked by genre or category. September of 2021 our category was banned books. After reading multiple articles listing banned books, not a single person is shocked to hear I had read almost all of them (I'm a rebel). This was one of the VERY few I had yet to tackle, and since it was banned primarily for the negative attitude towards males, that seemed like one I would definitely need to read. This is a powerful, and unfortunately WAY too common story, of a young woman who went to a party, got pretty intoxicated, and was raped. She was then vilified by her peers...somehow being the victim of sexual assault made her the bad guy. This is a story that is repeated over and over every day to young women around the world. It's a story that shouldn't have to be told. As a woman, it's a story I'm sick and tired of hearing. And finding out why this book was banned REALLY pissed me off. I'm glad I read it. The only (and it's a tiny thing) thing I didn't like was the way it read like a choppy journal. Almost like the narrator was writing it as a detached version of herself. It didn't work well for me. Otherwise it's fantastic.

While the unraveling of events didn't come of a surprise, I enjoyed this book. What can I say, I'm a sucker for painful highschool stories.

WARNING: This book contains Rape and Self Harm. I honestly really enjoyed everything about this graphic novel. The illustrations were amazing, the story was truely heartbreaking and sadly something that happens. This book was truely sad, but eye opening. I think everyone should give this a read. And if you are staying silent, don’t, you are not alone. I borrowed this book from the library not knowing what to expect but it didn’t disappoint. And also someone who had previously read the same book before me had left a sticky note at the end of the book. Which really touched me and hopefully will help someone in the future. So thankyou to that person who left that sticky note. The sticky note said: ‘You are not alone. Full responsibility lies with the perpetrator. You are not to blame. There is help available and you are worthy of receiving it.’ I hope that note impacts somebody who needs it. A truely captivating and sad story, that was beautifully written and illustrated.

melinda was a such a lovable character. she was very quiet on the outside but she had so many thoughts in her head. although this book brings up a very serious topic, it was laced with humor and made me love it even more. definitely recommend!

Full review to come!

5 stars | Speak is one of my favourite books of all time. This "updated" graphic novel adaptation is just as hard-hitting and heartbreaking as I remembered it. Emily Carroll was the perfect artist to illustrate this story. Beautiful work. I have to reread the novel now. Highly recommend.

TW RAPE Speak is a novel that means something very personal to me. The author managed to capture the pain and conflict that I felt myself as a sexual assault survivor. I saw myself in the Melinda and I saw the people I knew and grew up with in the other characters — including the man who assaulted her. Reading this book felt therapeutic and healing to me. Melinda had so much more than just her voice taken away from her that night and watching her grow and trust herself into relearning how to use that voice to speak up for herself really allowed me the opportunity to do the same. I truly believe this is a book that needs to be read by so many people, especially high school students so there can be conversations had about reaching out to people to see if they are in need of support and conversations had about sexual assault. It’s not your fault. Never. Your voice will be heard

i thought the writing style would be different. i had also seen the movie before reading this, so i kind of knew what was going to happen. the storyline wasn’t the strongest, it felt more like reading a diary or something. but i really liked it, just not the best book i’ve read. i could really relate to her character tho

i think its a great and realistic insight into the mind of a teenager as opposed to other 'coming of age' typa books which just focus on boy-crazy girls and stupid drama, which is so unnecessary. melinda's thoughts are actually relatable which i think is why, at least to me, she's such an unlikeable character. what i mean is i dislike melinda because of how much i see myself within her and how many of her thoughts are also my thoughts; the same way i don't sympathise with a lot of her trauma because it's similar to what i've experienced and i find it hard to sympathise with myself. her thoughts and her reactions are realistic, the things she does at times make me cringe because they're things i've done if ygm this book was hard to read at times, not just because of how relatable it is but because i didnt feel compelled to read it. it took me 2 months to read it and although i never wanted to DNF it, i never exactly felt the need to read it the way i do with other books (but this may be because i mostly read romance) overall i do think this was a nice book, would read another book by the author and although the ending was ambiguous, i like it as it is and wouldnt like a sequel tbh.

1,5owls! Even if the plot is realistic and this happens more than we know, i was bored 95% of the time. It's a story about sexual assault and that topic was talked about on like 5pages, the rest was how she performed in school and her grades. I get that events like this is hard to go through, but i felt it wasnt enough talked about and it should've been more attention to that specific topic. The author could've continued around 150 pages more and talked about how the plot would go after it was revealed what the main character had been through, and the perpetrator's punishment!

That last chapter made me tear up. To anyone who might feel like what they're going through isn't "bad" enough, valid enough or important enough - it is. I feel like that, too. And I'll always be here to listen.