This was a reread for me. Speak is an old favorite and I'll always love it. It's just such a well done, beautiful, and heart wrenching story. I think it could probably be considered a classic of the YA genre, even though it's not quite 20 years old, and it's always one I'll recommend. I love Melinda's character, I love her interactions with her former friends and how they all have distinct personalities, no matter the size of their role. I love her relationship with her parents and her art teacher and David. For such a short book with such a large cast, it does an amazing job of making each character fully developed and memorable.

I will say that I listened to the audiobook and I wasn't the biggest fan of that. The narrator read Melinda as a lot more sarcastic than I did in the text, which I didn't particularly enjoy. I don't know if that knocked this book down a star or if it's just a really great four star read, but I don't think I'll be picking up that audiobook again. (Which is not to say it's a bad audiobook. It just isn't how I personally pictured Melinda.)