She thinks, 'I don't feel like hiding anymore' (88.1). When she feels that Andy Evans has been exposed as a predator to the student body, she decides she doesn't need the closet. The empty supply closet at school provides Melinda with a place to reflect on her artwork and her life, take naps, vent her emotions, and hide from mean people at school. They are places of contemplation and safety, but also of isolation and terror. The closets in Speak have a double meaning. So, how about you? How does your high school experience, or your idea of the high school experience, compare with Melinda's? Does Speak provide a realistic view of high school? Why, or why not? Closets In spite of the flaws of Merryweather, Melinda is ultimately getting an intense and rewarding education and learning how to negotiate a world where some people really do have bad intentions. In fact, even though Melinda often skips school, she uses something from all of her classes to help her solve the problem she works on throughout her freshman year: whether or not to talk about her rape. (Check out 'Style' for a look at how Melinda uses the metaphor of a sprouting seed to help her envision her own renewal and recovery from the rape.) In science class, she also learns about how trees and plants grow. Through that class she gets to know her almost-love interest, David Petrakis, teen genius. Science class is also important to Melinda. Here, Melinda is nourished – she learns about art, about dedication to a work of art, and about her own feelings. Merryweather, like Neptune, has bright spots. We've seen Merryweather-like high schools many times before: as Neptune High in Veronica Mars, as Trinity in Robert Cormier's The Chocolate Wars, and as Ewen High School in Stephen King's first published novel, Carrie, to name just a few. If you have bad experiences in high school, consider a career as a writer. Yep, we're talking about high school, the place writers love to pick on. If we are lucky, we get out alive with our sanity intact. Much of Speak happens in that scary place most of us have to go to at some point. It probably takes place in the late 1990s, since the book was first published in 1999.

Similarly, exact dates aren't listed, giving it an anytime-feel. We suspect that Anderson wants us to feel like Melinda's experience isn't unique to girls in one specific area – it could, and does, happen everywhere. Other than that, we get the feeling that Speak could be happening anywhere, and that's probably the point. But when spring and summer come, she thaws and grows, just like a tree. Melinda grows more and more brittle, fragile, and cold through the long Syracuse winter. Her journey back to life after being raped is reflected in the seasons. This location is most significant because of the weather, which Melinda Sordino is very tuned in to. Merryweather High School in Syracuse, New York

If i should speak a novel