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Speech Team
A propulsive, witty, and moving novel starring four precocious Gen X teens–turned–twenty-first-century middle-agers who are seeking . . . well, if not exactly justice from a long-ago hurtful teacher, then at least some kind of long-desired reckoning and closure
Late one morning, parked in a desk chair at his humdrum job, Tip Murray finds himself reading the suicide note of his long-lost high school friend Pete Stroman. Mentioned in the note as a root cause of Pete’s despair? A disparaging comment made to him about his developmental disability by none other than their high school speech team coach, Gary Gold.
As more thorny memories surface from their eighties adolescence, Tip and his best friend, fellow speech team alum Nat Farb-Miola, decide to reconnect with their other teammates, and they discover an unsettling thread: all were quietly wounded by Mr. Gold’s deeply cutting remarks. The silver lining? Gary Gold is still alive, and a quick Google search tells the quartet that he has retired to Florida. There’s only one thing left to do: confront him.
By turns incisive and sweet, alive with the sting of wounds past and the hopeful possibility of the present, Speech Team explores what it means to take account of the pain that can suffuse a life and what it means, years on, to move forward.
Late one morning, parked in a desk chair at his humdrum job, Tip Murray finds himself reading the suicide note of his long-lost high school friend Pete Stroman. Mentioned in the note as a root cause of Pete’s despair? A disparaging comment made to him about his developmental disability by none other than their high school speech team coach, Gary Gold.
As more thorny memories surface from their eighties adolescence, Tip and his best friend, fellow speech team alum Nat Farb-Miola, decide to reconnect with their other teammates, and they discover an unsettling thread: all were quietly wounded by Mr. Gold’s deeply cutting remarks. The silver lining? Gary Gold is still alive, and a quick Google search tells the quartet that he has retired to Florida. There’s only one thing left to do: confront him.
By turns incisive and sweet, alive with the sting of wounds past and the hopeful possibility of the present, Speech Team explores what it means to take account of the pain that can suffuse a life and what it means, years on, to move forward.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2023
106 people are currently reading
8238 people want to read
About the author
Tim Murphy
6 books414 followersTim Murphy is the author of the novels "Correspondents" and "Christodora," both published by Grove Atlantic. "Christodora" was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. Under the name Timothy Murphy, he is also the author of the 1990s novels "Getting Off Clean" and "The Breeders Box." He has been for nearly 20 years a journalist focusing mostly on HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ issues, for publications including the New York Times, New York magazine, Out magazine, the Nation, POZ magazine, and for the magazines of the ACLU and Lambda Legal.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 418 reviews
July 22, 2023
The description of this book pulled me in. A story about adults looking back at the inappropriate, homophobic, and racist things their speech team coach said to them back in the 80s and analyzing how those comments have stuck with them their whole lives appealed to me. It sounded like a great way to comment on the ways that marginalized people were treated in the past in comparison with the progress that has been made, even though things aren’t perfect in the present. And while the book does do that… I just couldn’t get invested in the story. Something about the characters or the way it was written kept me from feeling as much as I wanted to.
The book felt very repetitive. The main character, Tip Murray, is going around and reconnecting with his former speech team members. Each time he meets up with another teammate we see him retell his same story about the awful thing Mr. Gold said to him. The scenes just felt so similar with the ways they were playing out. The book is building to the teammates getting together to confront Gold about his past comments. But the setup before the confrontation felt so drawn out and like it was just rehashing the same scene over and over again. Maybe it would’ve worked better for me if this was a multiple POV book instead of having it just be from Tip’s POV. Or maybe if it was more of a dual timeline book instead of being mostly set in 2012/2013 with a few scenes from the 80s.
I liked what the book was saying about how people’s remarks can have a lasting impact. I also liked their discussions of why they never confided in anyone when they were teens. How even though they were a group of misfits there were still things that they felt like they couldn’t share with one another about the ways they were struggling. But the uneven pacing and the repetitive nature of the scenes made me feel disconnected from the narrative as a whole.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The book felt very repetitive. The main character, Tip Murray, is going around and reconnecting with his former speech team members. Each time he meets up with another teammate we see him retell his same story about the awful thing Mr. Gold said to him. The scenes just felt so similar with the ways they were playing out. The book is building to the teammates getting together to confront Gold about his past comments. But the setup before the confrontation felt so drawn out and like it was just rehashing the same scene over and over again. Maybe it would’ve worked better for me if this was a multiple POV book instead of having it just be from Tip’s POV. Or maybe if it was more of a dual timeline book instead of being mostly set in 2012/2013 with a few scenes from the 80s.
I liked what the book was saying about how people’s remarks can have a lasting impact. I also liked their discussions of why they never confided in anyone when they were teens. How even though they were a group of misfits there were still things that they felt like they couldn’t share with one another about the ways they were struggling. But the uneven pacing and the repetitive nature of the scenes made me feel disconnected from the narrative as a whole.
Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
June 12, 2023
3.75 Stars
A story centered around a class of kids during the 1970's through the 1980's, bonded when they were in school and were all members of the Speech Team. These were the less-than popular kids with a teacher whose behavior was … inappropriate. When the news of one of their old classmates suicide reaches them, their memories of their friend, Pete Stroman resurface, and slowly they are reconnecting as the news makes its way to all. It affects them all differently, for Tip Murray it reminds him of his infatuation with Pete. Soon after, they are comparing stories about their former teacher, and their individual stories of just how inappropriate he was with them when no one else was around.
When Pete’s suicide note is revealed, it contains a revelation, a memory of their coach, a comment intended to diminish him. This is what begins to pull them back together, the memories of those years are still fresh in their mind despite the years that have passed.
Eventually their discussion over this leads them to decide to find out where this teacher is, and when they do, they decide to track him down, have a ‘friendly’ chat with him about the past, and a journey to Florida is arranged.
The stories of each are lightly sprinkled with their lives in the years that have passed since then, but their main focus is on accountability and perhaps a sort of revenge, now that he is in his later years, there isn’t time to lose.
This group consists of Nat, Tip, Jennifer, and Anthony. Anthony, being the most successful of them as relates to business, is bankrolling their trip thanks to his success as a notable fashion designer.
So they set off to Florida, determined to confront him, and although it doesn’t really go according to plan, it does change them all to one extent or another, perhaps for the better. Perhaps not. But it does incentivize them to take a look at their lives, and maybe even change their future for the better.
Pub Date: 01 Aug 2023
Many thanks for the ARC provided by PENGUIN GROUP VIKING, Viking
September 23, 2024
whatever is between a quarter-life crisis and a mid-life crisis is what this book is. as someone who was on a speech and debate team in high school, an activity that subsumed my life and identity, the scenes of 80s practices and tournaments were soooo relatable and real. the themes of memory and nostalgia shaping the lives of people decades after adolescence and young adulthood are soooo real to me. this is a solid new release from an author whose work i'm otherwise not familiar with. i think the way Massachusetts was discussed in this book was very accurate and satisfying. the portrayal of being a gay man, struggling with alcoholism and addition, having complicated relationships with people who have Alzhiemers, and the stunted youth of queer people growing up in repressive suburban environments was super on point in my opinion. would recommend! the audiobook was narrated well, too.
September 5, 2023
Not only has Tim Murphy never done speech, he was so disinterested in it that he didn't even bother to put in the one Saturday's-worth of research it would have taken him to sound like he isn't a total poseur.
Speech is a religion to many of us, you overwriting asshat. And it would have been to your quartet of main characters if they were even fractionally as good as you made them out to be.
You could have just as easily made these nondescript, boilerplate characters former basketball players and told the same unworthy story. I quit reading your trite, droning prose and skipped to the dialogue because it was the only thing propelling this dead shark of a novel forward.
My god, you had tons of material to work with here. High school speech? In the 80s? Told from the perspective of four disaffected X'ers? How do you take raw materials that good and write a book this bad?
Speech is a religion to many of us, you overwriting asshat. And it would have been to your quartet of main characters if they were even fractionally as good as you made them out to be.
You could have just as easily made these nondescript, boilerplate characters former basketball players and told the same unworthy story. I quit reading your trite, droning prose and skipped to the dialogue because it was the only thing propelling this dead shark of a novel forward.
My god, you had tons of material to work with here. High school speech? In the 80s? Told from the perspective of four disaffected X'ers? How do you take raw materials that good and write a book this bad?
July 7, 2023
4.5 stars
In Speech Team, Tip Murray, a nonprofit writer in his early forties, receives shocking news of a former teammate's suicide. This revelation leads him and his high school best friend, Natalie, on a nostalgic journey to reconnect with two other members of their speech team. As they delve into their past, they uncover a common wound inflicted by their speech coach, Gary Gold. Determined to confront Gold, they travel to Florida, calling the trip a reunion of sorts, allowing themselves to build up the wherewithal to visit their old teacher.
Maya Angelou is famous for having said, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." It is that aspect that holds so much truth to the theme in Speech Team. And yet it is the combination of these sharp, hurtful remarks and the strong feelings they elicited that makes the exact phrasings stick in the minds of Tip and his three surviving teammates: Natalie, Anthony, and Jennifer. It is that combination that made Pete include the exact phrasing in his last words. The bigoted, racist, and inappropriate comments have echoed in the minds of these five for decades.
It is also part of the battle of reconciling the person who hurt them with the person who helped them. The remaining quartet emphatically praise Gold's teachings and coaching skills. But the fact remains that looking at these wildly painful comments through their adult lenses, freshly fitted with the updated clarity of the progressing world, confronting Gold feels like the necessary next step in an attempt to help heal these old wounds.
One can't help but wonder at the similarity to the name of the main character and the author. Tip's real name is Thomas. And perhaps whether that indicates a deeper layer to this novel is irrelevant, because almost everyone has had to experience a reckoning of some sort. The truth lies in the commonality of this experience...not in whether this is a thinly veiled roman à clef or not.
Another top Gen-X novel (still about ten years before my own time as a Gen-Xer — still waiting on this), Speech Team is peppered with nostalgic references to that time period, but largely the flashbacks to high school are recollections that are being excavated by Tip to flesh out Gary Gold in his own memory. Like many, these four have attempted to paint over the pain of comments from an otherwise beloved teacher, only to discover the original marks are easily visible just below the surface.
Murphy's writing is fantastic and I loved the voice of the novel and the brilliantly crafted character of Tip. The complex group dynamics are at the forefront with the mini-reunion in Florida. As the guards drop, the group feels tighter and closer than they ever could've been in high school. I'm definitely going to go back and read Christodora and keep a keen eye out for other offerings from Murphy.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
In Speech Team, Tip Murray, a nonprofit writer in his early forties, receives shocking news of a former teammate's suicide. This revelation leads him and his high school best friend, Natalie, on a nostalgic journey to reconnect with two other members of their speech team. As they delve into their past, they uncover a common wound inflicted by their speech coach, Gary Gold. Determined to confront Gold, they travel to Florida, calling the trip a reunion of sorts, allowing themselves to build up the wherewithal to visit their old teacher.
Maya Angelou is famous for having said, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." It is that aspect that holds so much truth to the theme in Speech Team. And yet it is the combination of these sharp, hurtful remarks and the strong feelings they elicited that makes the exact phrasings stick in the minds of Tip and his three surviving teammates: Natalie, Anthony, and Jennifer. It is that combination that made Pete include the exact phrasing in his last words. The bigoted, racist, and inappropriate comments have echoed in the minds of these five for decades.
It is also part of the battle of reconciling the person who hurt them with the person who helped them. The remaining quartet emphatically praise Gold's teachings and coaching skills. But the fact remains that looking at these wildly painful comments through their adult lenses, freshly fitted with the updated clarity of the progressing world, confronting Gold feels like the necessary next step in an attempt to help heal these old wounds.
One can't help but wonder at the similarity to the name of the main character and the author. Tip's real name is Thomas. And perhaps whether that indicates a deeper layer to this novel is irrelevant, because almost everyone has had to experience a reckoning of some sort. The truth lies in the commonality of this experience...not in whether this is a thinly veiled roman à clef or not.
Another top Gen-X novel (still about ten years before my own time as a Gen-Xer — still waiting on this), Speech Team is peppered with nostalgic references to that time period, but largely the flashbacks to high school are recollections that are being excavated by Tip to flesh out Gary Gold in his own memory. Like many, these four have attempted to paint over the pain of comments from an otherwise beloved teacher, only to discover the original marks are easily visible just below the surface.
Murphy's writing is fantastic and I loved the voice of the novel and the brilliantly crafted character of Tip. The complex group dynamics are at the forefront with the mini-reunion in Florida. As the guards drop, the group feels tighter and closer than they ever could've been in high school. I'm definitely going to go back and read Christodora and keep a keen eye out for other offerings from Murphy.
I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.
July 31, 2023
I wanted to love this. I should have loved this. It checked so many boxes from the cover description that I was prepared for a five-star read. Gen X, on the speech team, nostalgic reunion of speech friends -- I was so excited for this.
Then, I read it. Or, really, I trudged through it.
Here are my problems with this: this isn't nostalgic. It doesn't even hit the note that it tries for of critiquing the 80s. It is in this effort that this book becomes not just tedious, but unbearable. Murphy tried (too hard) to peel back the mask and expose the 80s as unenlightened, oppressive, horrible. But, what he gives us is a group of successful adults with families and careers and lives to manage who all are somehow still obsessed with their own victimhood over a few mean comments one teacher made to them 30 years ago. Sorry, Tim Murphy, but I'm going to have to revoke your Gen X card for this. It's 300 pages of self-inflicted victim culture, unbearably narcissistic characters whining and whining and whining, blaming a 2-second comment from one teacher for everything that has presumably traumatized them for 30 years.
Look, I lived this real experience - a speech team from the Gen X era, high school as a bullied kid before safe spaces and trigger warnings. Lots of us did. Was it perfect? Of course not. But, the entire concept of a group of busy, successful adults with families and careers to manage, taxes and mortgages to pay, sitting around obsessively ruminating on one little offhand comment from high school -- and even more ridiculous, planning an expensive and time-sucking cross-country waaaaaaaaa trip to cry about their oppression and go shame the perceived bully 30 years later -- it's not just laughable, it's exhausting. There is one, and only one, of these characters that had a truly traumatic experience with the antagonist, the bully teacher, in this novel. It should have been told from her perspective. Instead, we spend the entire novel repeatedly being beat over the head by the the whining of a sniveling narrator who sounds like a caricature of a whiny Millennial painted by a bitter Boomer. The one story that could have shown the things Gen X survived is minimized, takes a backseat to the narrator's incessant whining. If Murphy wanted to get to the heart of the things that traumatized Gen X, this book failed miserably. Everything about this smacks of a condescending 2023 feeling of enlightenment compelling the author to reinterpret the 80s and 90s as inferior, Neanderthal to sell books to a younger audience. Gross.
Then, I read it. Or, really, I trudged through it.
Here are my problems with this: this isn't nostalgic. It doesn't even hit the note that it tries for of critiquing the 80s. It is in this effort that this book becomes not just tedious, but unbearable. Murphy tried (too hard) to peel back the mask and expose the 80s as unenlightened, oppressive, horrible. But, what he gives us is a group of successful adults with families and careers and lives to manage who all are somehow still obsessed with their own victimhood over a few mean comments one teacher made to them 30 years ago. Sorry, Tim Murphy, but I'm going to have to revoke your Gen X card for this. It's 300 pages of self-inflicted victim culture, unbearably narcissistic characters whining and whining and whining, blaming a 2-second comment from one teacher for everything that has presumably traumatized them for 30 years.
Look, I lived this real experience - a speech team from the Gen X era, high school as a bullied kid before safe spaces and trigger warnings. Lots of us did. Was it perfect? Of course not. But, the entire concept of a group of busy, successful adults with families and careers to manage, taxes and mortgages to pay, sitting around obsessively ruminating on one little offhand comment from high school -- and even more ridiculous, planning an expensive and time-sucking cross-country waaaaaaaaa trip to cry about their oppression and go shame the perceived bully 30 years later -- it's not just laughable, it's exhausting. There is one, and only one, of these characters that had a truly traumatic experience with the antagonist, the bully teacher, in this novel. It should have been told from her perspective. Instead, we spend the entire novel repeatedly being beat over the head by the the whining of a sniveling narrator who sounds like a caricature of a whiny Millennial painted by a bitter Boomer. The one story that could have shown the things Gen X survived is minimized, takes a backseat to the narrator's incessant whining. If Murphy wanted to get to the heart of the things that traumatized Gen X, this book failed miserably. Everything about this smacks of a condescending 2023 feeling of enlightenment compelling the author to reinterpret the 80s and 90s as inferior, Neanderthal to sell books to a younger audience. Gross.
July 26, 2023
How do you move on? That’s the central question I asked myself while reading the novel SPEECH TEAM. After the death of one of the adult members (Peter) of a former high school Speech Team, the remaining four (Tip, Nat, Jennifer, Anthony) get in touch after twenty-five years and reminisce about the past. Their conversations inevitably turned to their former coach, Mr. Gold, who their deceased teammate referenced in his final Facebook post. Obsessed with moving on, the four plan a trip to go to Florida to confront the retired coach.
The book is narrated by main character Tip Murray who was desperate to escape his small Massachusetts town while growing up. Now living near Boston with his partner, Marcus, Tip struggles with addiction to alcohol and cocaine. When his former teammate and high school crush dies, Tip becomes obsessed with finding his old classmates and reunites them. One by one he reconnects with Nat, Jennifer, and Anthony, eventually putting them all in touch with each other.
I noticed right away that the main character, Tip Murray, is shockingly close to the author’s name, Tim Murphy. Clearly, it’s not a coincidence. I was haunted the entire time reading this with questions if this was some kind of auto fiction and these events really happened. I don’t know. It’s possible. It’s also likely that the author took events from high school as a closeted queer misfit and extrapolated what he wished he would have done as an adult. Would he reconnect with classmates, crushes, lovers from the past? Would he confront his teach? This meta element drives home the theme of moving on, growing up, becoming who you are. There’s a lot of ways to grow up and this book explores them through each of the characters. At once poignant moment towards the end Tip and Anthony (both gay men) state their envy that Jennifer and Nat had kids, a clear dividing line between adolescence and adulthood.
The other characters have their own issues and were outcasts in their own ways in high school. Jennifer was one of the few Black students at their school. Nat was the stoner hippie chick with secrets of her own. Anthony was also closeted and of Lebanese decent. Peter may be described today as on the autism spectrum. The novel explores how each of these characters moved on in their own way and how their still struggling with identity years later.
The novel starts with a school newspaper article from the 80s written by Tip where he explains the premise of the speech team and the characters. After this brief introduction, the reader is thrown into the moment just before an aborted confrontation between the four students and Mr. Gold in Florida. These two prologues set up the premise and the basic promise of the book, a confrontation. And then we are thrown back in time to a period before the four students all reconnected where the novel progresses chronologically.
I really liked how we know the climax essentially at the beginning. We are moving towards the confrontation and it keeps the tension and the pace steady through the book all while there are tangents and divergent thoughts describing the life of Tip and his friends. And then we get to the climax (which I won’t spoil here) but I was surprised. This book didn’t go the way I expected, but in the best way. I thought the ending was fresh and interesting and fully grounded in reality. Life is messy. Life is a journey. Life doesn’t go as planned. Yet, time keeps pushing us forward. How do we move on from the pain of the past? How do we let go? This book doesn’t have all the answers but it explores the question.
This novel is described as “a literary mashup of The Breakfast Club and The Big Chill.” This description is as if the publisher had emailed me directly and said “Ryan, this is your jam.” I loved this book and it’s one of my favorites of the year. I am a big fan of Murphy’s previous novel, Christodora. Another of my favorite books with queer characters is The Celebrants by Steven Rowley. These books almost feel like companions in style and theme. If you like one, I suggest you try the other especially if you’re interested in fiction about queer middle-aged characters.▪️
The book is narrated by main character Tip Murray who was desperate to escape his small Massachusetts town while growing up. Now living near Boston with his partner, Marcus, Tip struggles with addiction to alcohol and cocaine. When his former teammate and high school crush dies, Tip becomes obsessed with finding his old classmates and reunites them. One by one he reconnects with Nat, Jennifer, and Anthony, eventually putting them all in touch with each other.
I noticed right away that the main character, Tip Murray, is shockingly close to the author’s name, Tim Murphy. Clearly, it’s not a coincidence. I was haunted the entire time reading this with questions if this was some kind of auto fiction and these events really happened. I don’t know. It’s possible. It’s also likely that the author took events from high school as a closeted queer misfit and extrapolated what he wished he would have done as an adult. Would he reconnect with classmates, crushes, lovers from the past? Would he confront his teach? This meta element drives home the theme of moving on, growing up, becoming who you are. There’s a lot of ways to grow up and this book explores them through each of the characters. At once poignant moment towards the end Tip and Anthony (both gay men) state their envy that Jennifer and Nat had kids, a clear dividing line between adolescence and adulthood.
The other characters have their own issues and were outcasts in their own ways in high school. Jennifer was one of the few Black students at their school. Nat was the stoner hippie chick with secrets of her own. Anthony was also closeted and of Lebanese decent. Peter may be described today as on the autism spectrum. The novel explores how each of these characters moved on in their own way and how their still struggling with identity years later.
The novel starts with a school newspaper article from the 80s written by Tip where he explains the premise of the speech team and the characters. After this brief introduction, the reader is thrown into the moment just before an aborted confrontation between the four students and Mr. Gold in Florida. These two prologues set up the premise and the basic promise of the book, a confrontation. And then we are thrown back in time to a period before the four students all reconnected where the novel progresses chronologically.
I really liked how we know the climax essentially at the beginning. We are moving towards the confrontation and it keeps the tension and the pace steady through the book all while there are tangents and divergent thoughts describing the life of Tip and his friends. And then we get to the climax (which I won’t spoil here) but I was surprised. This book didn’t go the way I expected, but in the best way. I thought the ending was fresh and interesting and fully grounded in reality. Life is messy. Life is a journey. Life doesn’t go as planned. Yet, time keeps pushing us forward. How do we move on from the pain of the past? How do we let go? This book doesn’t have all the answers but it explores the question.
This novel is described as “a literary mashup of The Breakfast Club and The Big Chill.” This description is as if the publisher had emailed me directly and said “Ryan, this is your jam.” I loved this book and it’s one of my favorites of the year. I am a big fan of Murphy’s previous novel, Christodora. Another of my favorite books with queer characters is The Celebrants by Steven Rowley. These books almost feel like companions in style and theme. If you like one, I suggest you try the other especially if you’re interested in fiction about queer middle-aged characters.▪️
May 9, 2023
ARC Review:
This book was a salve for my high school self. It connected me with the hurt I’ve held onto since I was young and was a beautiful story of growing up, letting go and moving on.
This book was a salve for my high school self. It connected me with the hurt I’ve held onto since I was young and was a beautiful story of growing up, letting go and moving on.
June 15, 2023
I am the same age as the characters in this book. We graduated from high school one year apart. So when I picked it up, I was expecting Gen X snark and cynicism, and some nostalgia for growing up 80s. There's a touch of that in Speech Team, but it was far darker than I was prepared for. It was also a bit of a long run for a short slide. Others seem to have connected with this one in the way I was hoping to -- it just didn't do that for me.
Suicide, depression, addiction, racism, homophobia, sexual abuse -- this book is a trigger warning waiting to happen. Four high school friends reunite in the aftermath of a classmate's death by suicide, ready to confront the teacher who they believe drove him to it. In the process, they come to terms with things he said to them back in the 80s as well -- things that were ugly that have stuck with them for decades. But their reunion, and their meeting with the teacher, don't go as planned.
I won't tell you what Mr. Gold said to Tip, Jennifer, Nat and Anthony, or what happens when they confront him. But I will tell you that we're more than halfway through the book before we find out what he said to them, and the confrontation, when it finally takes place, is very anticlimactic. I felt like we'd been building up to a huge clash of some sort, and then it just sort of fizzled. Maybe that was the point? I'm not sure. The same is true of Mr. Gold's relationship with Nat -- we wait forever for her to finally spit out what happened, but when she does, it's a big "meh" moment that we've seen coming since chapter one. That' s what I mean when I say it's a long run for a short slide -- a lot of build-up, not much pay-off.
The book is a good reminder that the 80s were a different time, and we all said things and had things said or done to us that wouldn't fly today. It's a reminder of how far we've come, and how far we still have to go. But I wasn't invested in the characters or what happened to them. They were just a reminder of all the people I went to high school with who I hope never to see again. If I hadn't been reading an eARC from the publisher in exchange for a review, I might not have bothered to finish this one. I don't particularly want to be reminded of the bad parts of high school, or the existential angst of middle age. I have plenty of my own without reading about someone else's.
There's a chapter toward the end of the book that literally spells out the moral of the story. Readers don't need that -- we're capable of interpretation on our own. I found it way too heavy-handed.
The book ends on a hopeful note, but we don't really find out what happens to our four main characters. The good news is that we probably don't much care. We've looked in on this little drama in their lives, and now they're moving on and so are we. We'll all have forgotten each other by next week. This one had a promising premise, but it just didn't deliver for me.
Suicide, depression, addiction, racism, homophobia, sexual abuse -- this book is a trigger warning waiting to happen. Four high school friends reunite in the aftermath of a classmate's death by suicide, ready to confront the teacher who they believe drove him to it. In the process, they come to terms with things he said to them back in the 80s as well -- things that were ugly that have stuck with them for decades. But their reunion, and their meeting with the teacher, don't go as planned.
I won't tell you what Mr. Gold said to Tip, Jennifer, Nat and Anthony, or what happens when they confront him. But I will tell you that we're more than halfway through the book before we find out what he said to them, and the confrontation, when it finally takes place, is very anticlimactic. I felt like we'd been building up to a huge clash of some sort, and then it just sort of fizzled. Maybe that was the point? I'm not sure. The same is true of Mr. Gold's relationship with Nat -- we wait forever for her to finally spit out what happened, but when she does, it's a big "meh" moment that we've seen coming since chapter one. That' s what I mean when I say it's a long run for a short slide -- a lot of build-up, not much pay-off.
The book is a good reminder that the 80s were a different time, and we all said things and had things said or done to us that wouldn't fly today. It's a reminder of how far we've come, and how far we still have to go. But I wasn't invested in the characters or what happened to them. They were just a reminder of all the people I went to high school with who I hope never to see again. If I hadn't been reading an eARC from the publisher in exchange for a review, I might not have bothered to finish this one. I don't particularly want to be reminded of the bad parts of high school, or the existential angst of middle age. I have plenty of my own without reading about someone else's.
There's a chapter toward the end of the book that literally spells out the moral of the story. Readers don't need that -- we're capable of interpretation on our own. I found it way too heavy-handed.
The book ends on a hopeful note, but we don't really find out what happens to our four main characters. The good news is that we probably don't much care. We've looked in on this little drama in their lives, and now they're moving on and so are we. We'll all have forgotten each other by next week. This one had a promising premise, but it just didn't deliver for me.
January 1, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!
I adored this book. There are no other words for it. It was complex and thought-provoking and hilarious.
I think many people can relate to reconnecting with your "tribe", your group of friends who knew you during your formative years due to proximity (neighbors or classmates) and were there as you became you. Tip and his friends from Speech Team were a part of each other's lives when they needed someone in their lives and their teammates were the closest they had.
The biggest takeaway from this book for me is the conversation surrounding off-handed remarks adults make to children. As the novel suggests, some of the things that Mr. Gold says to the kids while they're in his care would get him cancelled, fired, or even jailed today. But some statements are insidious and sit inside your mind, long forgotten by those that uttered it. I remember the high school teacher who told me that I should resort to drug use if I couldn't figure out calculus - I bet she doesn't. For me, it was a worldview-shattering event - and for her, it was a normal school day.
The characters are the biggest & best part of this story, all growing and coming to terms with themselves because of and in spite of Mr. Gold's statements. The story flies as the teammates reconnect and become friends now by chose instead of proximity.
Very excited for this book's release - would recommend to anyone who remembers high school with a shrug.
I adored this book. There are no other words for it. It was complex and thought-provoking and hilarious.
I think many people can relate to reconnecting with your "tribe", your group of friends who knew you during your formative years due to proximity (neighbors or classmates) and were there as you became you. Tip and his friends from Speech Team were a part of each other's lives when they needed someone in their lives and their teammates were the closest they had.
The biggest takeaway from this book for me is the conversation surrounding off-handed remarks adults make to children. As the novel suggests, some of the things that Mr. Gold says to the kids while they're in his care would get him cancelled, fired, or even jailed today. But some statements are insidious and sit inside your mind, long forgotten by those that uttered it. I remember the high school teacher who told me that I should resort to drug use if I couldn't figure out calculus - I bet she doesn't. For me, it was a worldview-shattering event - and for her, it was a normal school day.
The characters are the biggest & best part of this story, all growing and coming to terms with themselves because of and in spite of Mr. Gold's statements. The story flies as the teammates reconnect and become friends now by chose instead of proximity.
Very excited for this book's release - would recommend to anyone who remembers high school with a shrug.
January 29, 2024
3.5 rounded up. Murphy manages to put enough curve balls to elevate this one and keep it from being totally predictable.
March 12, 2024
yeahhh this is def some gen x / boomer stuff. after the suicide of their classmate, a group of speech team alumni band together to confront their bigoted speech team coach from the 80s only to find that he's in no state to receive the criticism... except the suicide never really comes to the surface, and the incidents of discrimination are boilerplate and feel cribbed from workplace anti-prejudice training. the protagonist, tip murray, is also insufferable (and so is the audiobook narrator rip). what are we supposed to feel for these people? pity? sympathy? their camaraderie also feels deeply unbelievable. also the speech team aspects never fully come to fruition. they could easily be on, like, the yearbook committee or any other club. why do the characters all do the same event? speech team isn't about reciting whitman or sojourner truth. it's about being 16 wearing business professional and eating lukewarm pizza at 4 a.m. in a rural indiana high school in the dead of winter. my culture is not ur costume. so if you come for speech team, you better come correct.
May 2, 2024
The great F. Scott Fitzgerald once described personality as "an unbroken series of successful gestures," and though it's a rather cynical worldview, it is an unwavering truth to the speech and debate community. To appeal best to your audience, speakers are advised to modulate their tone and inflection to a degree of precision best replicated in the military. Their body language and nonverbal communication must be polished, yet natural, seemingly organic despite having been rehearsed dozens of times. High school students, suddenly, are gladiators in a ring, appraised as they face off politely and respectfully in a science lab with the desks pushed to the periphery. There is a certain militancy to this activity for high achievers, a level of fury and passion that ambitious students don't often review. Speech and debate, most powerfully, gives high schoolers eight minutes of uninterrupted time to tell their stories. In a world so focused on efficiency and productivity, the half-hour or so that a speaker is given between their rounds at a speech and debate tournament becomes a refuge for self-expression.
Speech Team, however, is not a glimpse into the world of a high school speech and debate competitor. Instead, it draws four alums, or, more accurately, survivors, back into the vacuum of their glory days competing for coach Gary Gold at Mendhem High School. Tip Murray, Nat Farb-Miola, Jennifer Douglas, and Anthony Malouf are far removed from their pasts together, but are each making futile attempts to keep a bandage over the messy wounds inflicted by Gold, whose charismatic allure made him the benefactor of indelible trauma. Speech Team is a sort of coming-of-age tale, in which the characters reunite in a rather grand awakening and begin to find themselves within the chaos. Tip, specifically, the novel's uncertain narrator, is left shattered and unfulfilled by his four years at Mendhem High, and is desperately seeking renewal. Readers watch his internal monologue unravel and come back together again, the gray thread of his days of Providence mundanity aflame with colorful new stitches by his former teammates.
Such a journey, as Murphy depicts it, is likely the greatest representation of speech and debate's true nature: though it has the capability to harm, competitors leave their rounds and careers with infallible knowledge about not just effective body language, but how to bring others together. Discovering, and then revealing your identity can be a terrifying process. Speech and debate, and the community it creates, makes that journey so much more concrete. In just the eight minutes you are given to share your story, that truth suddenly feels tangible-a fastball you can whip at the audience and hope they return to you with the same amount of force and grace. Though Speech Team is certainly more than an eight-minute read, but a winding adventure that makes readers feel carnivorous upon diving into it. It's a big bite of humanity, quietly intimate at some moments and loudly carnal in others. Made possible by the complex anatomy of high school achievement, Speech Team expresses a truth that feels suited to an audience much greater than the six students in that science lab. It is an oratory for the ages.
Speech Team, however, is not a glimpse into the world of a high school speech and debate competitor. Instead, it draws four alums, or, more accurately, survivors, back into the vacuum of their glory days competing for coach Gary Gold at Mendhem High School. Tip Murray, Nat Farb-Miola, Jennifer Douglas, and Anthony Malouf are far removed from their pasts together, but are each making futile attempts to keep a bandage over the messy wounds inflicted by Gold, whose charismatic allure made him the benefactor of indelible trauma. Speech Team is a sort of coming-of-age tale, in which the characters reunite in a rather grand awakening and begin to find themselves within the chaos. Tip, specifically, the novel's uncertain narrator, is left shattered and unfulfilled by his four years at Mendhem High, and is desperately seeking renewal. Readers watch his internal monologue unravel and come back together again, the gray thread of his days of Providence mundanity aflame with colorful new stitches by his former teammates.
Such a journey, as Murphy depicts it, is likely the greatest representation of speech and debate's true nature: though it has the capability to harm, competitors leave their rounds and careers with infallible knowledge about not just effective body language, but how to bring others together. Discovering, and then revealing your identity can be a terrifying process. Speech and debate, and the community it creates, makes that journey so much more concrete. In just the eight minutes you are given to share your story, that truth suddenly feels tangible-a fastball you can whip at the audience and hope they return to you with the same amount of force and grace. Though Speech Team is certainly more than an eight-minute read, but a winding adventure that makes readers feel carnivorous upon diving into it. It's a big bite of humanity, quietly intimate at some moments and loudly carnal in others. Made possible by the complex anatomy of high school achievement, Speech Team expresses a truth that feels suited to an audience much greater than the six students in that science lab. It is an oratory for the ages.
June 24, 2024
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A complimentary copy of the book has been provided by Fully Booked in exchange for an honest review.
Speech Team follows the stories of five individuals; Tip, Nat, Jennifer, Anthony, and Pete. Pete being the catalyst of the story, with his suicide serving as the drive of the narrative. The story starts with the revelation of a social media post that leads to the reunification of the characters as they scramble together the information to reunite and identify the cause of their individual and eventual shared grief. The post then prompted Tip, the character from whose perspective we find grounding in, to re-live the experience he had with Mr. Gold (the antagonist) and his eventual reaching out to the other members of the speech team. And this is where the narrative starts unfolding.
I started reading this novel with very little preconceived ideal, I was hoping for the reprieve found in Young Adult Fiction. I did somehow convince myself that this might lead itself to play into the tropes of Dark Academia, but I was deeply disappointed. The pacing of the book was definitely engaging, an attribute to the authors ability to control dialogue and world building, and this enticed me enough to continue forward with the story, the setup was enticing enough to pique my interest in what the other students’ experiences were going to reveal themselves to have been. Their plan to confront their old speech team coach lent itself to evolve into an intriguing story. Unfortunately, at many points, it felt as though the reunited groups reasons were if not only weak but that they happened so far in the past, that the attachment was not relatable at all. Trauma is undeniably something that burrows into your skin, but often that trauma can die there. This felt like the characters wanted their friends to live those experiences again, for no reason other than basic progression in the story. I know firsthand the effects of bullying, especially bullying that impacts people by those who are charged with caring for them. But without the presence of the instigator to drive the narrative, and the length of time that passed since the events, I could not understand that need or desired outcome of confronting the perpetrator. It was quite a ridiculous moment when when we reached the climax of the story only for the author to have used the most attainable of copouts, rather than finish the narratives of each character.
In its entirety, I find the book to have a plot that is trying hard to reach an audience, leaning heavily on the notions of what social media tells us is good self-help. It felt like it was not original, it was simply reviling in the dramatics of the situation, because of the fact that it was putting elements into it that is there for the sake of audience connection, but not real understanding. There was nothing to give real purpose to the reveal, the protagonist or even the stories of the supporting cast. Creating an entire story about not being able to move on, is not only limiting but refuses the reader the opportunity to acknowledge growth. It was, in the end, too confusing to connect with anyone as each character tried to out do their friends with a story of suffering and struggle. A book without a resolution, without an ending. It was not easy to connect and I personally can’t see myself reaching for anything in this genre, whatever that is, again.
See this and other reviews in my blog.
A complimentary copy of the book has been provided by Fully Booked in exchange for an honest review.
“We showed that with unstinting practice and shrewd guidance, student from your average Massachusetts public school can talk circles around the state’s top-ranked teams, bringing home a bevy of ribbons to grace MHS’ elegantly refurbished trophy cases in the main hall.”
Speech Team follows the stories of five individuals; Tip, Nat, Jennifer, Anthony, and Pete. Pete being the catalyst of the story, with his suicide serving as the drive of the narrative. The story starts with the revelation of a social media post that leads to the reunification of the characters as they scramble together the information to reunite and identify the cause of their individual and eventual shared grief. The post then prompted Tip, the character from whose perspective we find grounding in, to re-live the experience he had with Mr. Gold (the antagonist) and his eventual reaching out to the other members of the speech team. And this is where the narrative starts unfolding.
I started reading this novel with very little preconceived ideal, I was hoping for the reprieve found in Young Adult Fiction. I did somehow convince myself that this might lead itself to play into the tropes of Dark Academia, but I was deeply disappointed. The pacing of the book was definitely engaging, an attribute to the authors ability to control dialogue and world building, and this enticed me enough to continue forward with the story, the setup was enticing enough to pique my interest in what the other students’ experiences were going to reveal themselves to have been. Their plan to confront their old speech team coach lent itself to evolve into an intriguing story. Unfortunately, at many points, it felt as though the reunited groups reasons were if not only weak but that they happened so far in the past, that the attachment was not relatable at all. Trauma is undeniably something that burrows into your skin, but often that trauma can die there. This felt like the characters wanted their friends to live those experiences again, for no reason other than basic progression in the story. I know firsthand the effects of bullying, especially bullying that impacts people by those who are charged with caring for them. But without the presence of the instigator to drive the narrative, and the length of time that passed since the events, I could not understand that need or desired outcome of confronting the perpetrator. It was quite a ridiculous moment when when we reached the climax of the story only for the author to have used the most attainable of copouts, rather than finish the narratives of each character.
In its entirety, I find the book to have a plot that is trying hard to reach an audience, leaning heavily on the notions of what social media tells us is good self-help. It felt like it was not original, it was simply reviling in the dramatics of the situation, because of the fact that it was putting elements into it that is there for the sake of audience connection, but not real understanding. There was nothing to give real purpose to the reveal, the protagonist or even the stories of the supporting cast. Creating an entire story about not being able to move on, is not only limiting but refuses the reader the opportunity to acknowledge growth. It was, in the end, too confusing to connect with anyone as each character tried to out do their friends with a story of suffering and struggle. A book without a resolution, without an ending. It was not easy to connect and I personally can’t see myself reaching for anything in this genre, whatever that is, again.
See this and other reviews in my blog.
August 9, 2023
I’m not sure how to best review this book even though I liked it. As a debater in high school, it was interesting to revisit the golden days where standing up in front of the room and practicing pacing and dramatic pauses was a source of pride. I grew up with kids like those in this book. Speech and debate team was definitely full of misfits though not quite as misfitty in our town as this novel projected. I appreciated that each of the characters had a backstory with the same teacher and that it was told in a time when teachers said more than they do now in a digital age. The story would not have made as much sense if written outside of the 80s. We think of teachers as having profound influences on us as a kids but here is what happens when the words of a mentor are carried as a burden instead of a blessing. I did find a few of the characters exhausting, especially Tip, but I did like the progression of the story and how it concluded. I received an Advance Review Copy of this book. All opinions are my own.
May 16, 2024
“The present caught up to the past. It was a phenomenon I’d noted on a few prior occasions, spending an unusually large and luxurious amount of time with someone you’ve not seen on a very long time. At first, you are blinded by your old iteration of them, looking for it in everything they say and do, desperate to connect those dots between then and now, that reassurance that there is a through line, that nothing really changes. And then slowly, maybe even reluctantly, you give way to the realization that this is, in fact, the new iteration, the one that reflects years of events you were not privy to. And your lens alters to accommodate this, to see someone who is in fact a hybrid of the person you knew and the one you’re only just getting to know.”
This was as cathartic as it gets. I’d list this piece with Chazelle’s Whiplash as works that speak to the hyper specific experience of surviving an artistic mentor or leader; because those people are the worst bullies. Someone they knew exactly what I was hiding, the same way Gold did with all of his students, and exploited it privately despite the safety of their speech team amid the horrors of high school in the 80s…just like my band director lmao. Either way I felt super seen and related to this a tremendous amount, but even if I hadn’t I would’ve loved this book anyway for its intelligent prose, artisanal storytelling and raw, human like characters. This book is such a sleeper and I can’t recommend it enough — truth that the best books find you, rarely the other way around.
This was as cathartic as it gets. I’d list this piece with Chazelle’s Whiplash as works that speak to the hyper specific experience of surviving an artistic mentor or leader; because those people are the worst bullies. Someone they knew exactly what I was hiding, the same way Gold did with all of his students, and exploited it privately despite the safety of their speech team amid the horrors of high school in the 80s…just like my band director lmao. Either way I felt super seen and related to this a tremendous amount, but even if I hadn’t I would’ve loved this book anyway for its intelligent prose, artisanal storytelling and raw, human like characters. This book is such a sleeper and I can’t recommend it enough — truth that the best books find you, rarely the other way around.
September 22, 2023
This is the first book I’ve read in way too long that I’ve stayed up late and woken up early trying to finish because I enjoyed it that much.
It’s truly like a John Hughes movie written as a John Green book for adults. Like a modern day Breakfast Club. It’s about four high school friends who haven’t really gotten together since 1987 but who are reunited after the death of another high school peer. They go out on this bizarre quest to avenge their old speech team advisor for the wildly inappropriate things he said to them as teenagers. It’s cringey and made me gasp out loud at times. It’s an easy read but so well written—I loved the author’s tasteful use of ornate vocabulary.
It’s truly like a John Hughes movie written as a John Green book for adults. Like a modern day Breakfast Club. It’s about four high school friends who haven’t really gotten together since 1987 but who are reunited after the death of another high school peer. They go out on this bizarre quest to avenge their old speech team advisor for the wildly inappropriate things he said to them as teenagers. It’s cringey and made me gasp out loud at times. It’s an easy read but so well written—I loved the author’s tasteful use of ornate vocabulary.
August 9, 2023
4.5/5 started slow & then captivated me ,,, cathartic as a former speech kid
September 5, 2023
It had a very slow start but it did pick up. Would have liked to have heard from all points of views of the four characters. It would make a good tv show.
December 8, 2024
as a book it was a solid fine. but for some reason the whole end part with them saying what they wanted to say to Gold really got to me so yeah...4 stars
August 23, 2025
So many feelings and memories. I related in many ways to this novel. Tim Murphy brought up much that I know. Shame and reality mixed with kinship and belonging.
May 16, 2024
The audiobook narration was top-notch! It captured the primary character’s voice perfectly with spot on snarkiness. And overall the plot concept was clever and the characters, interesting.
September 13, 2023
Very meh.
September 3, 2023
This review contains no spoilers.
Score one for Goodreads, which sent me a note about Matt Haig recommending this book. I recently read and enjoyed Haig's The Midnight Library (as well as his How to Stop Time a couple years ago). So I felt I could trust his assessment of this one, and I wasn't wrong. Speech Team is a fascinating look at a group of high school outsiders who came together to compete on a relatively obscure extracurricular team and then reunited roughly 25 years later. Their look back at that late 80s experience rang true for me as a 1988 high school graduate, and the characters themselves felt uniformly authentic (and interesting). I enjoyed the many pop culture references from the era of my youth, and I particularly appreciated the insights into what it meant to these characters to grow up since that time.
Our perspective on this engaging story is our narrator, a witty but troubled gay man by the name of Tip Murray (I just noticed the similarity to the author's name - I wonder if that's intentional). Tip has been through some stuff, both as a kid and as an adult struggling with the baggage of his younger self. His viewpoint is a fascinating one, and I really appreciate how it illuminates the specific challenge of how to navigate his sexuality back in the 80s and today. Like all the characters in the book, his difficulties feel raw and real, and I learned a lot from them.
This is an ultimately optimistic book, and I came away from it with a very positive feeling. But a lot of serious stuff goes down in these pages, and it's through introspection about these events that the real power of the book comes through. I have thought about Speech Team quite a bit in the week since I finished it, and I am very glad that it was recommended to me and that I took up that suggestion. It's a quick read but a powerful one. Highly recommended.
Score one for Goodreads, which sent me a note about Matt Haig recommending this book. I recently read and enjoyed Haig's The Midnight Library (as well as his How to Stop Time a couple years ago). So I felt I could trust his assessment of this one, and I wasn't wrong. Speech Team is a fascinating look at a group of high school outsiders who came together to compete on a relatively obscure extracurricular team and then reunited roughly 25 years later. Their look back at that late 80s experience rang true for me as a 1988 high school graduate, and the characters themselves felt uniformly authentic (and interesting). I enjoyed the many pop culture references from the era of my youth, and I particularly appreciated the insights into what it meant to these characters to grow up since that time.
Our perspective on this engaging story is our narrator, a witty but troubled gay man by the name of Tip Murray (I just noticed the similarity to the author's name - I wonder if that's intentional). Tip has been through some stuff, both as a kid and as an adult struggling with the baggage of his younger self. His viewpoint is a fascinating one, and I really appreciate how it illuminates the specific challenge of how to navigate his sexuality back in the 80s and today. Like all the characters in the book, his difficulties feel raw and real, and I learned a lot from them.
This is an ultimately optimistic book, and I came away from it with a very positive feeling. But a lot of serious stuff goes down in these pages, and it's through introspection about these events that the real power of the book comes through. I have thought about Speech Team quite a bit in the week since I finished it, and I am very glad that it was recommended to me and that I took up that suggestion. It's a quick read but a powerful one. Highly recommended.
September 18, 2023
looked forward to reading it every day after classes
December 4, 2023
While the idea of something said to you when you are young (especially by a person in power or whom you wish to please) can certainly haunt a person forever and we all probably have some experience with this in some form, this book is largely unrelatable and less appealing than the relatively simple and sweet premise for it indicates it might be.
Perhaps it’s just that this kind of mega nerd stuff doesn’t do much for me and if it does for you, you’ll probably like this book more than I did. But I think the real problem was more about the fact that 1) this isn’t an original premise for a novel and there’s nothing particularly new or appealing about this spin on it and 2) the narrative is really droning and repetitive.
The characters also weren’t much help. Some of them are likable enough, but the story mostly paints them as victim-y and stuck in the past in a way that inspires pity but not much likability or relatability. The female characters get a better treatment here than the male characters, but it doesn’t do much to salvage the story.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
Perhaps it’s just that this kind of mega nerd stuff doesn’t do much for me and if it does for you, you’ll probably like this book more than I did. But I think the real problem was more about the fact that 1) this isn’t an original premise for a novel and there’s nothing particularly new or appealing about this spin on it and 2) the narrative is really droning and repetitive.
The characters also weren’t much help. Some of them are likable enough, but the story mostly paints them as victim-y and stuck in the past in a way that inspires pity but not much likability or relatability. The female characters get a better treatment here than the male characters, but it doesn’t do much to salvage the story.
*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
June 17, 2023
Take a trip down memory lane to high school in the 80's A very down on his luck man named Tip is doing his best to tread water in the life he's made when he hears that a high school classmate committed suicide. In his note, the classmate calls out a teacher who was the advisor from their speech and debate club. This event puts Tip in a tailspin as he remembers his own experiences with the teacher and the memories drive him to reach out to his old teammates. Surprisingly enough, they all have negative memories about the coach. Before you know it, they are all on a trip to confront the teacher. The result is much different then you would think. And this super fun, funny and very well written novel provides a great ending that will speak to any one who once felt like a misfit in high school.
#penguinbooks #speechteam #timmurphy
#penguinbooks #speechteam #timmurphy
July 22, 2023
Thanks to NetGalley and Viking Books for my ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be published August 1, 2023.
Words can hurt, they can haunt you, especially when spoken by a high school speech teacher Gary Gold to his students. When news breaks that a former speech team member committed suicide, and blamed it on a remark from Gold, 4 other students reunite, and share similar experiences about his disparaging remarks. They decide to confront Gold after all these years, to let him know what effect his words had on each of them, but in so doing, they gained understanding and granted forgiveness.
The first 3/4 of the book were very slow but it did finally pick up when the students confronted Gold. Somewhat predictable ending. For these reasons I can only give it 2 stars.
Words can hurt, they can haunt you, especially when spoken by a high school speech teacher Gary Gold to his students. When news breaks that a former speech team member committed suicide, and blamed it on a remark from Gold, 4 other students reunite, and share similar experiences about his disparaging remarks. They decide to confront Gold after all these years, to let him know what effect his words had on each of them, but in so doing, they gained understanding and granted forgiveness.
The first 3/4 of the book were very slow but it did finally pick up when the students confronted Gold. Somewhat predictable ending. For these reasons I can only give it 2 stars.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 12, 2023
This book is for anyone who’s ever been called names or endured unkind actions as a child or teenager. What do you do with that years later? I’ve seen people comment that it’s hard to believe these things would be remembered 25 years later. I’m in my early 60s. Trust me - they stick with you.
The premise of the book is solid, and the characters are enjoyable to get to know. I had a little trouble getting started because of the use of some unconventional syntax, but once I got into the rhythm of the book, it bothered me less.
The premise of the book is solid, and the characters are enjoyable to get to know. I had a little trouble getting started because of the use of some unconventional syntax, but once I got into the rhythm of the book, it bothered me less.
December 3, 2023
This was very tough to review. First of all, don’t judge by the cover. This story is much more about a group of adults reconnecting than it is about the high school students they were.
I absolutely loved the authors prior books and felt this was very much a departure for him. None of the characters are really likable by design. The story was interesting enough to keep me engaged but by the end left me feeling kind of hollow.
I absolutely loved the authors prior books and felt this was very much a departure for him. None of the characters are really likable by design. The story was interesting enough to keep me engaged but by the end left me feeling kind of hollow.
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