Speak

I forgot to put in a synopsis of this book, so here ya go: Melinda at the end of 8th grade went to a party that had highschool kids and ended up getting raped there (which you don't find out until 75% of the way through the book because she won't think about it). She goes to call the cops but when they get there she is too scared to speak so everyone gets mad at her for busting up the party and she loses all of her friends. She then starts high school and through her internal monologue you understand how she attempts to deal with what happened to her and eventually how she heals.

Well this is one instance in which I am not sure if I liked the movie or the book better. There were points in the book where I liked a little more detail and I really thought it was powerful to hear Melinda's silence in the book. The dialogue is written out almost like a play and Melinda's reponse 99% of the time was

Me:

And then the other person would continue. I felt like her silence in the book was more powerful because it was very pointed as opposed to the movie where she also doesn't respond but it doesn't catch your attention as much. Considering that the title is Speak I liked that the silence in the book was more eye-catching. But I did like the movie as well. I thought the young Kristen Stewart actually did a good job. I can see why this was such a powerful book considering that unfortunately rape like this happens all the time. Here are some statistics about rape. I hate how common it is and how often it goes unreported. Speak does a good job describing the internal struggle of a 15 year old victim and how she attempts to deal with her trauma. Two thumbs up.