4.5 stars for this 1999 novel by Laurie Anderson because it’s written so well that reading it in 2020, you can’t even tell by the style or story that it was written over 20 years beforehand. The story of Melinda is heartbreaking, and one of learning to overcome sexual violence and the loss of every friend you thought you had. Being able to watch her reach her lowest point and come back up from it, and then learning to understand and accept what happened to her is an astonishing read.

It's written a lot like a personal diary, so you can see through her eyes and thoughts during her freshman year of high school. She'll tell you about "IT" and about the friends she lost and the ones she gained, as well as her parents and the teachers that made a difference. She considers herself the “outcast” of the school because of the way everyone treats her after she called the cops at the big party before school started. In Melinda’s defense, she had just suffered from a traumatic experience at this party, and she felt lost and confused and reacted to her mind’s urge to seek help.

This story hit close to home because while reading her story, it reminded me a lot of the years where I hit my lowest points and had to come back up from those, around the same time Melinda was facing hers. Although my personal experiences were very different from hers, I can understand her when she feels so lost and alone and seeks comfort in sleeping away the pain and the confusion.  On her way back up, she understands what happened to her that night at the horrible party, and she confides in a past friend about this with the purpose to protect her from this certain guy, the “IT.” Even though it doesn’t go the way she was hoping it would, Melinda begins to feel a weight lift from her shoulders.

*SPOILER* The climax of this story is at the very end, when it’s the end of the school year and Melinda is cleaning out the abandoned school janitorial closet that she spent much of her time isolating herself inside. This is when “IT” finds her here and locks them inside before he attacks her. She tries to fight back but he’s much stronger than her, while cursing and degrading her. But then Melinda finds her voice, and she screams. And she screams and she fights back, and she breaks the mirror on the wall that she hid underneath a poster of Maya Angelou. She grabs a broken shard of class and holds it to his neck, cutting him slightly, and rendering him powerless while people who heard her scream come running to her rescue. She won.

If there was anything I could change or improve about this story, I would want to put more emphasis of her art project into her story. The item she chose at random was a Tree, with which she had to create any form of art that resembled her object by the end of the year. She struggles with this assignment throughout the year but ends up turning in her final project on the last day, finding inspiration through everything she had overcome. I believe this project had an important connection to her story of growth and strength, but I do wish it was shown more throughout the story, rather than implied or left to be connected by the readers. It is written well the way it is, but it took me awhile to make the connection.

I would recommend Melinda’s story to reader’s everywhere, because it’s a story that changes you. It inspires you, and connects with you on a real level, no matter who you are or when you read her story.

Trigger warning: Rape

I don't know what to say. I loved "Speak" when I read it back in 2015. I felt for Melinda and wanted to hug her throughout the story and loved how Anderson takes a long road to showing us what happened to Melinda and how her life became unraveled before her freshman year of high school. The graphic novel does a great job with showing us Melinda in the present day and her memories of her friends and of a party that changed everything via the illustrations by Emily Carroll. The illustrations add so much to this story and I am glad that I read "Speak" first and then this graphic novel next. I already knew the story that Anderson was going to tell. Seeing it via another medium made it even more powerful. 

"Speak: The Graphic Novel" follows the main character, Melinda. Melinda is starting her freshman year in high school and the novel quickly shows how alone she feels. She is unable to speak and as we follow her through four quarters at Merryweather High School we find out what led Melinda to lose her voice and how in the end she gets it back.

Melinda has so much pain in her and I am blown away again by the fact that her parents were this clueless. The only person that seems to be aware of Melinda is her art teacher, Mr. Freeman and a classmate of her David Petrakis. The character of Heather was self-absorbed and I cracked up at the scene we had in the novel (with Melinda telling Heather no) was done again in this with Heather's face not processing being told no. 

The writing was so good. I think that doing this novel with illustrations was actually brilliant. Considering that Melinda finds her voice again via her art and art class in school I thought it was great to see. 

The graphics just made me want to go and buy this book in hardcover though. 

The graphic novel shows us Melinda's room, her secret hiding place at school, and her art classes. Everything feels tight and slightly claustrophobic. 

The ending really resonates and I can't believe this book is already 20 years old. The themes in this book made it in my mind a true classic that I can see people reading for years. 

Wow the illustrations and text were so popular. Didn't take me long to get through (one of the many reasons why I love graphic novels) and everything is more of a gut punch seeing it in black and white. 

I loved the novel and this graphic novel is giving me all of the feels. Emily Carroll's illustrations are so good.