Author: Hannah Harrington
Release Date: August 28th, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Pages: 288
Edition: Paperback
Cover Judge: Bold, I like it.
Cover Judge: Bold, I like it.
Quote Choice: Perfectly describes her life pre-Speechless.
Source: For Review
Source: For Review
Goodreads: Link
Everyone knows that Chelsea Knot can't keep a secret.Until now. Because the last secret she shared turned her into a social outcast—and nearly got someone killed.
Now Chelsea has taken a vow of silence—to learn to keep her mouth shut, and to stop hurting anyone else. And if she thinks keeping secrets is hard, not speaking up when she's ignored, ridiculed and even attacked is worse.
But there's strength in silence, and in the new friends who are, shockingly, coming her way—people she never noticed before; a boy she might even fall for. If only her new friends can forgive what she's done. If only she can forgive herself.
Hannah Harrington has an amazing writing style that manages to be both filled with heavy meaning AND super easy and breezy to read. This is seriously one of my favorite things about her writing.
So I was a little apprehensive about diving into Speechless because I haven't been feeling the contemporary vibe lately but I'm so glad I decided to pick it up because looooove. It's about a girl called Chelsea who is tipsy and sees two boys making out at a party. As the sidekick of the head bitch of the school, she goes downstairs and tells everyone. Two of the popular boys get mad and chase after the gay boy, Noah, who is now leaving the party and the next day, he ends up in the hospital. She tells the truth about the two guys and in turn, her entire friend circle and school turns on her.
I loved Chelsea. She was just the right amount of superficial while still managing to be sincere and heartfelt and that made her a real teenager. It might be because I really connected with her (my middle school existence was spent almost entirely inside the "popular" crowd even though I didn't like many of them and I wasn't really being myself) but she was just a great character to me. Funny, resilient, and she didn't let things get her down, even when it seemed the world was turning on her. Also: for a character who doesn't actually TALK (Chelsea takes a vow of silence and uses notes to communicate with people throughout the whole book), she was awesome.
The book does a really good job with addressing the consequences that come when you decide to take your own path in life even if it's not the one most taken. Chelsea is shunned by nearly everyone -- people write stuff on her locker, egg her car, bully her relentlessly. All because she turned in two boys who BEAT A KID INTO A COMA for being gay. While this book doesn't scream "issue book" (which I was glad for because I'm not into issue books much), the message was there and it was well-done.
SAM. SAM I LOVE YOU. Seriously guys I thought Sam was awesome. Definitely less angsty than Hannah's debut love interest in Saving June, Sam is sweet, funny, dorky, and can make a mean tuna melt. The only thing I didn't like about this book is that it's really short so I felt that a lot of development could've been explored.
But mostly I was sad because it ended!
Happy Reading!
