Thirteen-year-old Melinda breaks up a party one night by calling the police, and the result is, everyone hates her. Nobody is her friend any more. Nobody even questions why she called the police. Is that how kids are today? I'm not sure. It's certainly not how I and my friends were. But, anyway.

Melinda's grades drop, she can't concentrate on anything. She is filled with fear of the boy who (at the party) assaulted her, who goes to her school. He is popular, confident, and threatening. Melinda retreats into her own head and stops speaking completely. Again, her teachers, guidance counsellor, parents see this as an annoyance. Nobody seems to have Melinda's best interests at heart. I don't know. Maybe I'm looking at this as though it could be in the perfect world. But it just seems like no one sees this straight B student — friendly, chatty, happy — drop her rates to low Ds, have no friends, and refuse to speak. Wouldn't they have noticed without getting angry?

SPOILER ALERT: The book ends very abruptly with Melinda standing up to her attacker, and then everyone believes her and he becomes the outcast. Like, the whole book is building up to this, and then it happens and it's over.

I do think this book is something all young people need to understand. It is a good guide on how to be a good human being. It is a good companion for people who are going through this kind of thing. It might make them feel less alone. It is also a good guide for boys on how to treat girls (and other boys). It teaches about respect, which is good.

The core message of respecting other human beings as people, first and foremost.

The end. It was inevitable (in a good way), but it seemed minimised and rushed.

Sad. Angry. Despondent. Annoyed. Hopeful.

Laurie Halse Anderson. I don't know a lot about her, but I believe she generally writes YA, like this.

It has a good message that teaches kindness and patience.

It's not the best example of YA writing I've ever read, and I've read quite a lot of YA books. I don't know. Maybe I'm just to old for it now.

There is a letter at the end that confused me. It is after the story. A letter, address to: "My younger brother." Which made me think it was from the author to her brother. But then, the writer mentions himself as being male. So I wondered who it was from. I couldn't figure this out. It annoyed me.

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Created Jan 04, 2025 at 6:23am • Submit your own review...