Banned Book Week: Review and Giveaway: SPEAK

THANKS FOR ALL THE ENTRIES THE WINNERS ARE:

CATHIE AND MOMMY WANTS TO READ

THANKS!!!

 

 Today is the start of  Banned Books Week. Visit http://www.ala.org/ for more information on the challenged and Banned books. Here are the books I will be reading and reviewing. I will also be sharing information from the ALA site about where these books have been challenged.   

 There has been a lot about this book on the blogsphere and twitter about this, due to some comments about it "portraying rape as pornography" The one gift from this ignorance is the incredible support Laurie has received and that I IMMEDIATELY  went out and ought two copies which I will be giving away.  Here is my Review:  Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson


My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. 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. And then she would have to speak the truth. Good Reads


I'm sure by now you guys have heard it. The quote that has been burning up twitter feeds and generating outrage. The ignorance surrounding Wesley Scroggins comparing the rape scenes in this book to "soft core pornography" The response by the blogging community compelled me to buy two copies of the book. I scanned the Goodreads ratings, 5 star reviews all around. I began the book and I have to admit I struggled with it. I didn't like Melinda. I Struggled with her decisions, her attitude. I made judgements about her, how could she not TELL someone. Then I realised I was approaching this book all wrong. I thought about what I was like my freshman year of High School and I LET GO.

I remembered my mother and her alcoholism. How after years of being a highly functional addict, she spiraled out of control. I thought of the mornings when I stepped over her prone form on the kitchen floor, made my own breakfast and walked to school.
I stopped having friends over. I buried myself in my schoolwork and books. I never told anyone. How could I? What would become of me? of her? That is the beauty of this novel. It opens you up. You begin to resonate with Melinda. Many years have passed since my experiences with my mother but this book opened up so many emotions and memories.


As I read on and the detail Of Melinda's rape became revealed my heart broke for her. Do I need to say there is nothing pornographic about the rape? There isn't. Instead you get a description of the emotions and feelings of her violation. The shock in the the aftermath as she stumbles to the phone calls 911 and is literally unable to SPEAK. What follows is the most accurate portrayal of post traumatic stress I've ever read. The ddistance Melinda creates for herself from others, the depression and numbness. I really didn't know how this book would end.  Watching her find the courage to tells someone, to release that burden even though she is met with anger and disbelief was the most rewarding part of the book. Her final act of strength where she confronts her inner and outer demons and her attacker is powerful. I'm grateful that this book exists. That it was able to touch me and release some stored emotions I didn't even realise were still there.


I hope through my efforts and the efforts of the blogging community more gets written about this fine book and more copies make it out into the world. GIVEAWAY:



I HAVE TWO COPIES OF SPEAK TO GIVE AWAY

USA ONLY

YOU MUST BE 13 YRS OLD TO ENTER

CONTEST ENDS 10/2/10
    I also hope to read and review all these: 

 

 GIVEAWAY: I HAVE TWO COPIES OF SPEAK TO GIVE AWAYUSA ONLYYOU MUST BE 13 YRS OLD TO ENTERCONTEST ENDS 10/2/10