Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak

Writing well about teenage angst is one of the hardest things there is. If it's too easy, you get annoyed: it's not really that easy, no one understands, if it were that easy then you wouldn't still be mired in angst, now would you? Or else they're right, and the mere fact that you're still mired in angst is proof that you're a total loser. If it's too hard, then it becomes too much validation, a voice telling you that it's okay to hate everything and not try, because that's the way the world works, and there isn't any point.

Add to that the difficulties of writing about a depressed narrator/protagonist in such a way that you like her, and want to spend time with her; depressed people aren't always much fun to be around.

This book is a triumph because it walks that line perfectly. Melinda is a ninth-grader, a total outcast, deeply depressed, just trying to make it through this school year. And she has a secret. The revelation of that secret is the point, and not the point; I made a guess based on the back-cover text, and it turned out to be the right guess, and it's probably pretty obvious what happened at a party that traumatized her so much. But her inability to talk about it is the point, and the revelation is intensely emotional not because it's surprising, but because Melinda finally revealing it--even just inside her own head--is surprising.

What gets us through a pretty dark book is that Melinda is funny. By funny I mean snarky to the point of cruelty, and I can remember being this contemptuous and this angry in high school; but there's just a little bit of breathing room between the narrative voice and the authorial voice to let us know that this contempt is natural, partly justified, but not as deeply rooted in reality as Melinda might believe.

The school board has decided that "Merryweather High--Home of the Trojans" didn't send a strong abstinence message, so they have transformed us into the Blue Devils. Better the Devil you know than the Trojan you don't, I guess. School colors will stay purple and gray. The board didn't want to spring for new uniforms.

It's a book that pays attention to things; it's a book that tells the truth. And by telling the truth in little bites and quiet moments, it manages to make us believe it in the big and intense moments too. By the end, the story of Melinda's courage and survival becomes real, not some glib after-school-special thing like it could have become.

See? I don't hate all contemporary-realistic fiction. I'm just picky.

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Speak. New York: Penguin, 1999.