I confess to having more than a slight regard for films featuring American teenagers grappling with life in high school. From the giants of the genre (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, 10 Things I Hate About You) to the not so great examples (Bring It On 5), they are films that I watch when I just want a humorous and relaxing experience.
Speechless really reminds me of one of these films. It has everything you would expect – the rigid high school hierarchy featuring the mean girls with the ‘queen bee’ who you do not want to cross, the horrible jocks who push everyone around and the quirky kids who do their own thing regardless of what anyone else thinks. It also features students working in a fun diner after school, the requisite house party that goes terribly wrong, a high school dance and clueless parents!
This book puts a slightly different twist on the genre. The main character is Chelsea, a huge gossip and former acolyte of the ‘queen bee’ who gets frozen out of the inner circle at the top of the hierarchy after her loose tongue causes another student to come to great harm. She is so ashamed of what happened that she takes a vow of silence, rationalising that if she does not speak, then she cannot cause any more damage. This means that a large amount of her narration involves internal monologue but surprisingly this does not become boring. The book tells of her adjustment to her change in status and how she comes to terms with what she has done and makes amends with support from the most unlikely quarter.
A sweet romance develops between Chelsea and the obligatory quirky, loveable guy and by the end of the tale she has grown from a shallow, self-involved gossip to a well-rounded, reliable friend who realises that there is life outside the top of the high school tree. The novel is a bit predictable and is definitely not high literature but that was not what I was looking for or expecting. It is a well-written young adult story with strong messages about discrimination, peer pressure and bullying that are delivered in a non-preachy way. If this book was made into a film I would watch it!
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Mrs Osafo