Sometimes Speaking up is hard to do. (Speak)

Anderson, L. and Carroll, E. (2018) Speak, the graphic novel. New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing group.

Spoilers Ahead!

Melinda has been dreading the start of high school.  It’s just as bad, if not worse than she thought it would be.  She’s been branded an outcast, and people go out of their way to be mean to her or ignore her completely.   She can’t talk to her former friends.  Everyone is mad at her for calling the police during a summer party.  The only girl who will talk to her is a new girl, Heather.  Algebra is boring, English incomprehensible, and History is run by an angry, racist a-hole.  Biology is ok, but Art is the only class she tries at all, and just barely.  Her project for the year is a tree.  She can’t seem to quite get it right.  Finally, David Petrakis, who is also her lab partner in Biology, stands up to the History teacher.  After that day, History goes along like it should, since David is recording him.  Eventually Heather dumps her because she is too depressing and not cool enough.

Then she see IT.  IT goes to the school, and it always seems to pop up to make her uncomfortable.  Usually she runs away. She runs away from a lot of things.  She finds an abandoned janitors closet, which she makes her hidey hole.  She spends a lot of time there.  Over the year, her grades continually get worse, as does her attendance and emotional state.  She has trouble sleeping. We find out that IT’s name is Andy Evans.  She called the police at the party, because he had cornered her and raped her.  When people found out she called the police however, they freaked out and she got scared.  She ran before she could even say anything.

Now her former friend, Rachel, is going out with him.  She’s afraid to say anything, but she’s afraid not to say anything.  She writes her an anonymous note.  Prom season is coming around and Rachel is still dating him. Heather comes back around and tries to use Melinda to make prom decorations.  Melinda is done being used.  She kicks heather out, cleans up her room, and decides to start living again.  She tells Rachel what happened that night, but as can be expected Rachel blows up with disbelief.  Andy makes his move during prom, and Rachel kicks him to the curb.  As school is ending, Melinda decides its time to clear out her hidey hole janitor’s closet.  She doesn’t need it anymore.  While in there, she is cornered once again by Evans.  He is pissed about the rumors about him flying around and blames her.  He tries to do it again. This time though, she finds her voice.  She takes control of the situation and he is caught.  She’s finally able to get that tree drawn, this time with birds flying free.

This book was pretty hard to get through. I could see where it was going and it was pretty depressing.  I’m sure though, this is exactly what many girls in this situation go through.  Here I am complaining about reading it, but some people have to live through it.  I shudder at the thought.  It makes me think about the high schoolers I teach and if I’m one of those A-hole teachers.  I hope not.  I really like the art style in this graphic novel.  It does an amazing job of creating a mood for this book.  I can’t imagine words alone being quite as effective.  There is also this amazing tree motif throughout the book.  The trees change form and shape to symbolize Melinda’s changes.  It’s really quite cool.

I read this book because it is one of my required readings.