The 20th Anniversary edition of the novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, will be released this month, and it is just as relevant as it was in 1999.

Speak is about a girl named Melinda and her struggles of growing up depressed and being sort of an outcast. She goes to Merryweather High where she doesn’t have many friends. Her used-to-be friends grew apart or, as she says, they “splintered and the pieces are being absorbed by rival factions,” meaning her old friends found different groups.

When Melinda was 13, she went to a party where she was raped. She never told anyone what happened that night. She just went home and didn’t say a word to anyone about it.

Melinda gives clues to her parents that she’s depressed. One day she skips school and goes on the city bus. She makes a stop at the hospital where she feels comfortable because everybody around her has bigger issues than to notice her. But her parents really don’t notice because they shut her out and put work first because they aren’t as close as they used to be.

Melinda’s parents argue, and it affects her in school. She has a room in the school where she goes to sleep because it becomes hard to sleep at home. Her mom owns a store and the business is struggling. Her dad sells insurance. She says if it weren’t for her, her parents would be divorced.

The tone of the story gives off a sad type of mood. It sounds like a cry for help because she’s depressed and doesn’t think anybody will understand how she feels. It tells how she’s lonely, having no one to talk to.

Melinda doesn’t feel confident because she feels she’s not like everybody else. The other kids don’t understand her, so they think she’s weird or different. She had nobody except her friend Emily, but when she joined “the Marthas,” Emily said she didn’t want be friends.

This book makes a great story to learn a lesson from. It makes the reader feel like they’re not the only one going through stuff like this. All in all it’s a great book that I would recommend. It gives a realistic idea of what could happen to a person in high school, how they might be treated, and how easy it is to end up with the wrong crowd.

The way Melinda manages to overcome her obstacles ends the book with a great feeling of hope.