Going back into the vaults to books from last year that haven’t gotten a review yet. Still have quite a few of those to get through, hence the double review.
About the Books
Title: Speak
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Series: none
Genre: YA Contemporary
Pages: 224
Edition Read: Paperback
Dates Read: March 15-16, 2023
Blurb: The first ten lies they tell you in high school.
“Speak up for yourself—we want to know what you have to say.”
From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication.
In Laurie Halse Anderson’s powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Title: Wintergirls
Author: Laurie Halse Anderson
Series: none
Genre: YA Contemporary
Pages: 278
Edition Read: Paperback
Dates Read: March 17-18, 2023
Blurb: Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in fragile bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the thinnest. But then Cassie suffers the ultimate loss—her life—and Lia is left behind, haunted by her friend’s memory and feeling guilty for not being able to help save her.
In her most powerfully moving novel since Speak, awardwinning author Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s struggle, her painful path to recovery, and her desperate attempts to hold on to the most important thing of all—hope.
Review
Apparently back in March of last year, I felt like tackling some books with pretty heavy subject matter. This will mostly be a review of Laurie Halse Anderson than of the books individually. In my opinion, if there is a difficult topic of discussion to be had, especially when it relates to teens, Anderson is by far one of the absolute best authors to go to.
What is super frustrating is that since she is very good at (and not afraid to shy away from) important topics, it tends to bring on the book banners fairly quickly. For example, Speak was published back in 1999, but was still in the top ten of challenged books in 2020, according to the American Library Association. What is even more frustrating is the reasons why: “Banned, challenged, and restricted because it was thought to contain a political viewpoint and it was claimed to be biased against male students, and for the novel’s inclusion of rape and profanity (source).”
Really. The story is about a young girl who gets raped and the book was challenged because they were worried about boys getting their feelings hurt. Ugh.
Luckily, Wintergirls doesn’t seem to share the same fate. In fact, it seems like Wintergirls is often hailed as an important read, even making the YA Library Services Association’s list for Best Books of 2010.
Both of these books can be triggering to some given the subject matter, but that’s also why I think they are so important. It’s part of why I hate the idea of book challenges to begin with – if you are uncomfortable with a book, then by all means, do not read it. These books are definitely not for everyone. But one person (or a small group of people) should not be able to remove something like this completely from a school or a library. There will be students who are going through similar issues and if reading one of these books helps them feel a little less alone, then it is absolutely worth having them as part of a collection.
Will these books make some readers uncomfortable? Yes. They’re supposed to. It’s their job to push boundaries, challenge mindsets, and help readers understand some of these difficult situations that other young people may be going through. Anderson is absolutely brilliant at this and that is why I appreciate her writing so much.
GoodReads ratings: 5 stars for both (so 10 stars?)
Categories: Books I've Read
Life With No Plot 
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