-Review- Speechless by Hannah Harrington

Speechless by Hannah Harrington
Release Date: 28 August 2012
Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Age Group: Young Adult

Format: eGalley

Pages: 288

Purchase: Book Depository | Amazon

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.

The first time saw the cover, I did not know what to say. I was Speechless and did not get why the cover was so plain at first. After reading the book I completely thought I had the cover figured out; my opinion relates the cover to the story. The cover is so plain because not using words in order to hurt others, or even using them may not cause problems. The cover is clutter free and uncomplicated, without words there is nothing. I know see that the cover speaks volumes and that it is going to look great on the actual copy.

Speechless follows a sixteen year old girl named Chelsea, we witness her fall from popularity and follow her through her vow of silence. When she becomes an outcast I could instantly feel the change in status and felt that Chelsea changed as a person completely, which lead me to question whether or not people that are popular are fake or are they genuinely like that. In Chelsea’s case it appeared to have all been an act in order to fit in.

This book carries many important messages about several issues and one of them that stood out the most to me was verbal bullying. Chelsea’s vow of silence lead me to question whether or not I had ever hurt someone with my words; the answer—many times. This book made me feel bad about some of the things I may have said in the past.

I have come to realise that words hurt. Speechless taught me that physically bullying someone may cause temporary pain and one can heal, but words remain with people and they can ruin someone’s life. I’m sure all of us have been verbally bullied at sometime in our lives, I can admit that I have and the feeling afterwards is not the best feeling in the world and Speechless was definitely relatable to me.

As soon as Chelsea took her vow of silence, I was so into the book that I too thought I could not speak. I lasted all of ten minutes due to my surroundings, but thought that this book was incredibly interesting as this was something original and new to me.

Harrington’s writing is simple and addictive. I was hooked the entire time by this riveting tale she was telling and I cannot wait to read more from her. Speechless was a life-lesson-filled book that I could not put down. I hope that many people read this book because the message is so important.