The book Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a realistic fiction novel about a teenager in 9th grade named Melinda. The whole book is about redemption and how she’s struggling with fighting depression and anxiety. Melinda has later in the book found a love for art, and especially the class where she reunited with her old friend Ivy. At the beginning of the book she had something traumatic happen to her by another character named Andy Evans, who is a senior when she is a freshman. He is a very negative person and doesn’t think with his head all the time, and when he does, it’s usually a bad decision. He isn’t a very smart thinker. Melinda has a conflict with Andy throughout the book, she avoids him a lot whenever he is talking to her friends, and she always gets anxious around him.

The book is very sad but it leaves you on edge and wanting to read more. I’m personally not a big reader but I loved this book a lot. There weren’t so many cliff-hangers that it’s not  repetitive, but there was enough to where you wanted to read more. This honestly was one of the best novels I have read. I would probably recommend this book to teenagers who are into personal issues with books. Laurie Halse Anderson wrote in a style that was very unique, it made it very simple to read, but you could tell there was more emotion put into the writing this way. The writing made Melinda feel like an actual person who was just writing out her thoughts, feelings and what happened. It was first person, Melinda being the main point-of-view, everything from her eyes and her emotions. I think this novel was really good, I would definitely recommend it to anyone asking what book they should read next.