So I’ve read my first Graphic Novel of the year. ‘Speak’ by Laurie Halse Anderson is about a teen who loses her voice and becomes a recluse after being sexually abused at a party.
The panels illustrated by Emily Carroll speak all the emotions the protagonist struggles to express in words. While a lot of the book treads on familiar territory – how high school sucks, parents not getting along fine, popular kids being jerks – it still manages to keep you hooked on to every page. Some of the pages are poetic and beautiful. Anderson put a lot of heart in this one.
It’s hard to imagine that the book faced censorship challenges. But on second thoughts, it’s understandable, most people get uncomfortable about themes like teen rape. People want to push these stories in a corner and pretend like it doesn’t happen.
Which is why, “Speak” is an important work, it needs to be heard of – it’s about finding your voice and standing up to sexual predators.
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P.S – I published a poetry collection called “Death & Darker Realms” which is available on Amazon, following are the links to the e-book-
Please check your country’s amazon if I haven’t listed it or just on your Amazon kindle app.