“I open my mouth to breath, to scream, and his hand covers it.” Melinda Sordino is attempting to survive her high school year. Going through challenges of boys, friends, keeping up her grades, and just fitting in. She passes intimidating, and sneaky people, and she can’t figure out how to make it through without the pain, the torture, and the humiliation. Melinda is shy, and not to high up on the food chain. Melinda ruined and end-of-the-summer party by calling the cops. So her old friends won’t talk to her anymore, and they don’t even want to be seen with her. Something big happened to her at the party, and that something makes Melinda fear to speak her voice, and tell someone. So she has to deal with people just calling her “the cop caller,” and other hurtful names. It takes Melinda the whole book to finally come out, and speak. So the title of the book does come in when Melinda decides to actually speak.

This book changed me. It gave me advice to my high school year. I really enjoyed reading it because the characters in it, are somewhat my age. So that makes it easier for me to relate to them, and make connections. I caught myself saying things like “Oh my gosh, I know exactly how Melinda feels,” throughout the book. I really loved this book and I would love to read another book by Laurie Halse Anderson, because she is a great author.