Title: Speak: The Graphic NovelAuthor: Emily Carroll, Laurie Halse Anderson
Series: Speak #0
First Published: February 6, 2018
Publisher: Farrar Straus and Giroux
Pages: 384
Genre: Contemporary, Young Adult
Format: Hardcover
Source: Library
Rating:
Synopsis:
"Speak up for yourself―we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless―an outcast―because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. Through her work on an art project, she is finally able to face what really happened that night: She was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. With powerful illustrations by Emily Carroll, Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak: The Graphic Novel comes alive for new audiences and fans of the classic novel.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
Speak is a young adult novel written in 1999 about the rape and subsequent bullying of a high school freshman. The novel is based partially on the author’s personal experiences and has received international praise. The book has won multiple awards and is on the ALA’s list of 100 most challenged books from 2000-2009. While I had never read the original book, it had always been on my list of books that I’ve wanted to read but have been a little afraid to.
This graphic novel reminded me why graphic novels are such a wonderful medium for telling a story and how the format can do certain things that novels can’t. Art is a pretty big theme in this novel and so being able to have a visual representation of Melinda’s art as well as the pain and depression that she suffers through is brilliant. The use of rabbits to show Melinda’s hypervigilance really adds to the story, expressing her emotions in a way that is striking.
Aspects of the story have also been updated considering it has been almost 20 years since the original story was published, which was a great idea I think for making the novel more approachable for modern-day young adults. In some ways, I think that the graphic novel may make this difficult story easier to digest for many.
As for the story itself, I liked the scattered narrative, it was an accurate depiction of what depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are like. Despite all of the trauma, the story was empowering in the central message of finding your voice to stand up to something or someone that may be scary in order to protect others. The resolution was a little too neat and clean for my liking, but I liked the story nonetheless and the ending made me a little teary-eyed. I’m glad that I decided to pick up this graphic novel and would like to pick up the novel in the future.
Quote
“It’s getting harder to talk. My throat is always sore, my lips raw like I have some kind of spastic laryngitis. I know I’m messed up. I want to confess everything, hand over the guilt and mistakes and anger to someone else. There is a beast in my gut, scraping away at the inside of my ribs.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Authors
About Emily Carroll
Emily Carroll was born in June of 1983. She grew up in London (Ontario). She started making comics in 2010, and her horror webcomic His Face All Red went viral around Halloween of 2010. Since then, Carroll has published several books, created comics for various comics anthologies, and provided illustrations for other works. Carroll has won several awards, including an Ignatz and two Eisners.
About Laurie Halse Anderson
Laurie Halse Anderson is a New York Times bestselling author whose writing spans young readers, teens, and adults. Combined, her books have sold more than 8 million copies. Her new book, SHOUT, a memoir-in-verse about surviving sexual assault at the age of thirteen and a manifesta for the #MeToo era, has received widespread critical acclaim and was Laurie’s eighth New York Times bestselling book.
Two of her novels, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists, and Chains was short-listed for the prestigious Carnegie medal in the United Kingdom. Laurie has been nominated for Sweden’s Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award three times. Laurie was selected by the American Library Association for the Margaret A. Edwards Award and has been honored for her battles for intellectual freedom by the National Coalition Against Censorship and the National Council of Teachers of English.
In addition to combating censorship, Laurie regularly speaks about the need for diversity in publishing and is a member of RAINN’s National Leadership Council. She lives in Philadelphia, where she enjoys cheesesteaks while she writes.
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