Review: Speechless by Hannah Harrigton

Title: Speechless
Author: Hannah Harrington
Publication Date: August 28th 2012
Publisher: HarlequinTeen
Rating: 4 stars

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.

Speechless is one remarkable and outstanding novel that handled a very insightful issue with great depth and profundity in it. I'm amazed by how Hannah Harrigton effectively wrote Chelsea's story that would make every readers understand the situation, the characters, the consequences and see the lessons and messages behind it. 

Chelsea at first wasn't a very likable character. She's shallow, indifferent and yes, doesn't know when to shut her mouth. That was until it caused a terrible and heavy consequences and she vowed to never speak again. I love how Harrigton wrote her character; she was so flawed but was very realistically written. Her character definitely bugged me in so many ways but when bad things started happening to her it was so easy to sympathize with her situation.

Although that didn't mean I trusted her right away. But as she bit by bit realized stuff and things, as she gradually grew, changed and developed I started to really appreciate and love her character too. Every aspect of her development was well highlighted. I love how it was efficiently carried thus helping the readers to completely relate and understand the repercussion of Chelsea's actions (as well as the other characters) and how it had affected her. Hannah Harrigton is definitely a great writer for being able to really reach me with Chelsea's story.

The secondary characters were one of the best parts of this book. Asha, Sam, Andy, Lou and Dex were all great characters and definitely appealing. I love that they were the kind of seconday characters that weren't forgettable. The scenes with them; the banters and dialogues were so fun and amusing to read. The romance was also a very lovely and sweet one. I love how Sam and Chelsea's relationship developed, it was gradual and slow but really adorable and cute and sweet. Haha!

If you enjoyed Hannah Harrigton's Saving June I'm sure you're gonna love this one. Harrigton wrote an amazing realistic story with flawed yet totally relate-able character and with so much depth and insights. The writing is splendid and flowed so easily.  And the development of the story as well as the characters is impressive. This is a very worthy read. I recommend this.

*Thank you Netgalley and HarlequinTeen for providing a review copy of this book.