REVIEW | Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

I decided to branch out and try a YA novel for a change in my reading pattern.

In Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson peels away the layers of a broken heart and traces its step-by-step journey to find emotional healing. Anderson chose to work within a first-person narrative. The prose is blunt and contains minimal window dressing. Anderson made a wise choice: when someone endures the type of mental and emotional turmoil the main character endures, she wouldn't feel motivated to go into detail. In fact, narrative is external (words) and mimics the main character's struggle to gather the courage to vocalize the hurt and rage that boil within.

Anderson digs deep to expose complexity in the simple. She delves into the psychology of the victim. The novel seems to reveal little in its first half, but again, this mimics real life: the main character finds it difficult to trust, so she spends the first half of the book building trust with the character. As you listen to her daily observations on life, she begins to trust the reader a gives a glimpse of her inner pain. In fact, I believe a second read would reveal depths in the first half that seemed insignificant the first time around.

Effective, heartfelt. Speak is a winner.


Today's playlist: Icon (The Cranberries), My Christmas Wish (BeBe Winans).