Also, the way Rachel, Melinda’s former best friend, completely shuts her out without bothering to talk to her didn’t seem very realistic. You can tell by her voice that she’s actually really smart, observant, and bitingly witty, but she’s failing her classes, and all her parents can do is be mad at her, rather than stopping to wonder why their daughter is doing so badly. The way Melinda didn’t care about anything anymore, the way her parents didn’t seem to notice that something was seriously wrong with her. Melinda’s reaction is probably not what most people do, but it is the most extreme, and ultimately the most dangerous way: just shutting down, and refusing to speak. The way Anderson writes is amazing, and she’s not afraid to tackle a tough topic and direct it towards teens. In fact, it’s the way books like this portray high school that made me super nervous before I started. I don’t know if high schools like this actually exist, but the portrayal was very alien to me. And there’s nothing like the Martha club, a group that purports to do good, but is actually competitive, vicious, and really nasty. People may not be all that intelligent, but most of them don’t go out of their way to be viciously mean. There may be cliques, but in general people are actually pretty nice, at least to me. I have to say though, that I’m in high school right now, and the high school Melinda goes to is nothing like mine. This novel is an attempt to explain both that, and why certain people act the way they do. I was a bit frustrated by this, and sometimes it was hard to relate to the way she acted, but I really have no idea how someone in Melinda’s situation would feel. She’s basically just shut down in an attempt to forget what happened to her, rather than trying to speak about it, or move past it, or explain to her former friends why exactly she called the police. It’s really depressing, because Melinda is just so depressed throughout the novel.

The book is pretty short and a quick read in terms of length, but let me tell you, it’s a hard book. This extraordinary first novel has captured the imaginations of teenagers and adults across the country.” And then she would have to speak the truth. Because there’s something she’s trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. The safest pl ace to be is alone, inside her own head. Now her old friends won’t talk to her, and people she doesn’t even know hate her from a distance. “Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. I have seven new notebooks, a skirt I hate, and a stomachache.

Speak laurie anderson