Speak

This story is written in first-person narration from the point of view of the protagonist, Melinda Sordino. The setting is mostly her high school in New York, Merryweather High.

After calling the police on an end-of-the-summer party, fourteen year old Melinda Sordino enters ninth grade as a pariah, ostracized by everyone in the school, including her best friends. "I am OUTCAST," she thinks on the first day of school as she walks down the hall facing the nasty taunts and catty sneers of all her classmates. No one likes a rat. But there is something she is hiding, she can't tell anyone what happened to her at the party, what made her call the cops. Melinda can't tell anyone much of anything. Over the course of her school year, Melinda becomes practically mute, refusing to speak to anyone about anything. But it becomes clear that her silence has something to do with a senior named Andy Evans, who Melinda refers to only as "IT".

Even Melinda's parents don't know what to do. They can't understand what's wrong with her, and need to work out their own issues before they can even get started on Melinda's. Melinda goes through school spending lunchtime and time in-between classes in an abandoned janitor's room as her safe haven.

Throughout the book you experience Melinda's everyday life, and her struggling to get through each day in one piece. By the end of the novel she finally triumphs over her problems and admits to herself and other what happened the night of the party. She got raped by the senior Andy Evans, or IT. But she triumphs over it all and realizes speaking up is the best thing you can do.