Melinda’s narrative arc lies not only in the assault itself but also in the aftermath of her socially imposed silence, which takes place over a painful freshman year in which she loses friends and nearly loses herself, before ultimately telling her story and finding that final rush of catharsis.
Speak tells the story of a teenage girl named Melinda, who is ostracized by her classmates after being assaulted at a high-school party-and who, in the traumatic aftermath of this incident, stops speaking almost completely. Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak (1999) was my first exposure to stories about sexual assault. Fighting Words by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley and True Story by Kate Reed Petty (Photo credit: Dial Books/Viking)
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