Review: Speak

Speak: 10th Anniversary Edition

Last month, right around Banned Books Week, there was a big uproar that centered around this book.  For those of you who might have missed (aka living under a rock/not in the book blogosphere), a professor in Missouri called Speak "soft core pornography)".  Like most instances of book banning, his words only made me want to read it even more.  I hadn't heard of this book or even the author until that article.  I've been reading a lot of young adult lately, thanks to the education library in the building where all of my classes are (my library school program is in the faculty of education).  Unfortunately, they didn't have this book or any of the other books mentioned in that article.  However, I luckily won it in a giveaway.
I was really intrigued by the premise.  Until about halfway through the book, we don't know exactly what happened, just that something bad had happened at a party, and know everybody hates Melinda, the main character.  The writing was outstanding.  I could really feel Melinda's pain, of not only getting raped and keeping it a secret, but then everybody in school hating her.  I think this is an important book that all high schoolers should have to read.  It's about a girl having something terrible happen to her, and then getting up the courage to tell somebody about it.  I am going to go get more books by this author as soon as I can.