Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Book Review: Speechless by Hannah Harrington

Title: Speechless
Author: Hannah Harrington
Genre: YA
Subject: Friendship, Coming of age
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Release date: August 2012
Length: 288 pages
I got this book: from the publisher for review through NetGalley.

Summary:
From Goodreads:
"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."

Personal opinion:
At first I thought this was a typical YA novel. But the silence vow makes it different and a bit more fresh. Sure, there are typical high school themes going on. Learning the consequences of your actions, gossip, bullying, popularity and finding out what really matters. But somehow it didn't feel like just another high school story and that is really done well. It did remind me a bit of Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson though. It has some of the same elements but Chelsea is a lot more outgoing, a bit too much than is good for her and not likeable at all. She would have been one of the kids I hated in my high school time. But when she is tosses into the other side of the popularity scale, she starts to change and I grew to like her. I enjoyed reading about the journey she goes through and even though it would be unlikely that she ends up where she did if it wasn't a story, it was done well and didn't come off as too unbelievable to me.


Purchase links: The Book Depository
Challenges: E-book challenge
Other reviews: Bart's Bookshelf,
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