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Monday, August 13, 2012

Speechless by Hannah Harrington

Release Date: August 28th, 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Format: ARC
Genre: Young Adult-Contemporary

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.


Mean girls. We've all seen or dealt with them in school. In the words of School House Rock, knowledge is power, and Chelsea collects all of the information about people that she can. Then her and her friends spread these rumors like wildfire and systematically humiliate the other students in their school. It keeps them popular, because no one wants to be on the bad side of the kids who could potentially ruin your life. At first I wasn't so sure about Chelsea, because she seemed to thrive on spreading gossip and behaved like those people deserved whatever they got. She was kind of a bitch, but not completely unredeemable. When she tells a pretty big secret at a party, she almost instantly regrets it and tries her hardest to convince everyone it's not a big deal and to leave it alone. After it ends up getting someone seriously hurt, Chelsea doesn't ever want to be responsible for spreading peoples secrets again. So she takes a vow of silence. Kind of genius, in my opinion.

Her vow started out a little selfish at first, while she didn't want to be responsible for anyone else getting hurt, she was more concerned about what she lost as a result of what she said. She really just wanted her friends and her status back, but as her ex-friends wage war against her, she starts to realize that maybe being a part of that group was never really something she enjoyed.

Asha and Sam are two kids that decide to take a chance on Chelsea and give her a place to belong again. I think Asha is the most genuine character I have ever read. She sees the good in everything and believes people always deserve a chance. Asha accepted Chelsea almost immediately, vow of silence and all, and never let her spend too much time thinking about what happened. Sam is just excellent. He's a little nerdy and a lot swoonworthy, such a nice guy who befriends Chelsea despite some very big reasons not to.

I loved Hannah Harrington's debut Saving June and I was so excited for Speechless, well it didn't disappoint! This one has a whole different vibe to it, but I think it was just as excellently written. I urge everyone to pick it up and give it a read! Definitely a new favorite :0)


4 comments:

  1. Wonderful review! I'm so glad you enjoyed this. :D I absolutely LOVED Saving June, so I've been ridiculously excited for Hannah Harrington's latest. It sounds fantastic.

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    1. I loved Saving June, too! And this one is just as great, but they have totally different vibes going for them, so definitely don't go in expecting the same type of story. I'm sure you'll love it :0)

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  2. Glad to hear my time won't be wasted reading this.

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    Replies
    1. Definitely, not! It's a really great contemp read and Hannah Harrington is an excellent writer :0)

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