Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

           The novel, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson is a powerful book written in a diary format by a freshmen girl named Melinda. Between the summer of eighth and ninth grade, she and her best friend, Rachel, go to a party where everyone is drinking. While being drunk, something happens to Melinda, making her call the cops and bust the party. Keeping the incident a secret, she enters high school where she is ostracized by her peers, including Rachel, and becomes an outcast of the school. As she struggles to deal with depression, fear, trust and isolation, she slowly tries to change herself and mature into a stronger person.

            An important part of this book is when Melinda starts communicating with people again. After the incident, she becomes scared and loses the ability to speak out, making her bottle up all her emotions inside. She has no one to talk to, which makes her feel very depressed, lonely, afraid and painful. Thus, it was very surprising when she makes an effort to reach out to Rachel, who stopped being friends with her after the party. Melinda tells Rachel everything that happened, which makes her sympathetic at first but then angry after. However, Melinda’s intention is not to hurt Rachel but to protect her from the same mistake she made. Although Rachel betrayed Melinda, the action Melinda takes is very caring yet courageous.

            I think Anderson did a great job, constantly attracting the readers to continue reading throughout the book. The readers, especially the teens, can relate to this book in some ways because we all struggle with growing up and friendships just like Melinda. I think anyone would enjoy reading this novel, and for those who are looking for a new book, you should try this one!

            

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

The novel, The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold is a suspenseful book about a 14-year-old girl named Susie Salmon, who is murdered and watches her family and her murderer continue their lives from heaven. 

One of the significant scenes from this book is when Susie’s sister, Lindsey, starts getting involved in the investigation of her sister’s murder. One day, Lindsey and her dad talk about Mr. Harvey, whom he thinks is the murderer, and how they need to find evidence that would link to Susie. Thus, Lindsey decides to stalk Mr. Harvey and memorize his daily schedule in order to break into his house. When the day comes, she secretly and successfully sneaks into his house. She “sees” Susie and is lead by her to Mr. Harvey’s bedroom where she finds a sketchbook. Inside the sketchbook is “a small drawing of stalks above a sunken hole…in a spidery hand [Mr. Harvey] had written “Stolfuz cornfield”…Now [Lindsey] saw what [Susie] wanted her to know.  [Susie] had died inside that hole; [Susie] had screamed and fought and lost” (183). While Lindsey is horrified by her new discovery, Mr. Harvey comes home and hears her upstairs. Although Lindsey is able to escape and is unharmed, Mr. Harvey sees her run away. After reading scene, I thought that this was an important part of the book because now that evidence is found, I figured Mr. Harvey would be arrested for all the crimes he has committed in the past, including Susie’s murder. However, this cunning, clever man acts all innocent and tells the police a believable story that he was trying to figure out how Susie’s murderer killed her in which the cops believed. Thus, Mr. Harvey unfortunately gets away with it once again.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this novel because I like suspenseful stories, and I constantly wanted to know what would happen next. People should read until the very end since it is very satisfying and karmic. Although I saw the movie first, it was still interesting to read the book and compare it to the movie. I recommend this novel to those who like suspense, and they should watch the movie after as well.