(Part 2 of my reaction to Laurie Halse Anderson’s SPEAK)
Wow. Just wow. It was stunning, and sad, and a little funny, and totally non-gratuitous. I hope all my kids read it (when they’re 14) and want to talk to me about it.
There is a whole lot of obsessive teen angst-ing in YA lit these days. The ‘I’m so lonely, I’m so sad, life is so hard for me’ sorts of books. SPEAK is no such thing. This is how I’d write angst if I knew how. Subtle. Crafted. Spare. Witty. Real.
I felt both right inside the walls of that high school, and at the same time, like wrapping poor Melinda in my mommy arms.
I got it from the library, but it’s a definite purchaser. 5 stars, with age-caveat.