Speech Team

A Novel

By: Tim Murphy

Narrated by: Daniel Henning

“A tender-hearted novel and a dream to read. I loved this book.”—Matt Haig #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Midnight Library

“so so so so good…[Speech Team] is a MUST…It has all the feels and brilliant writing to boot.”—Elin Hilderband (on Instagram) #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Five Star Weekend

A funny, gossipy and ultimately poignant novel about four Gen X teen friends turned 21st-century adults who awkwardly come back together to confront an influential teacher whose brutal remarks have haunted them all for years.

In his early forties, nonprofit writer Tip Murray is just getting past the wreckage of his youth and settling into semi-humdrum married New England domesticity. Things take an unusual turn when he receives shocking news from his high school best friend, hippie farmer Natalie, that one of their former teammates from speech team, Pete, has committed suicide. Surprisingly mentioned in Pete’s final Facebook post? A devastating comment made to him by their speech team coach, Gary Gold.

Feeling nostalgic for their 80s adolescence, Tip and Nat decide to reconnect with two long lost friends from the team, haughty menswear designer Anthony and tightly wound college professor Jennifer. The reunited quartet quickly discover an unsettling thread: all were quietly wounded by Mr. Gold’s deeply cutting remarks. The silver lining? Gold is still alive, and a quick Google search shows that he has retired to Florida. There’s only one thing left to do: fly down to a posh resort to confront him. What happens next is far from what any of them could have imagined.

Fueled by cringe-y confrontations and 80s nostalgia, a literary mashup of The Breakfast Club and The Big Chill, 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.

"Tim Murphy is a genius at sweeping, character-driven stories that suck you in until the very last page, and Speech Team is no exception."—Andy Cohen

©2023 Tim Murphy (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A hugely absorbing and deeply heartfelt tale about friendship, unhealed scars and second chances."—Star Tribune

"Touching"—The Washington Post

Affecting tale of forgiveness and friendship

I highly recommend Speech Team by Tim Murphy. It is a well-written, affecting tale of memory, friendship, and forgiveness. And it is funny too! The audio version is superbly narrated by Daniel Henning. I have read and listened to all of Tim's books, including Christodora and Correspondents. His novels are all very different in tone and subject matter, but engaging too.

I’ll give you something to cry about…

I had to read this book for book club, and while it was a fast listen, it seemed like a lot of the horrible things that happened to them when they were adolescents are just par for the course and resulted in a lot of whining that made for low-grade Smaltz. I’m not a big fan of whining. Also the narrator sounded like Moira from Schitt’s Creek! The characters were all fairly one dimensional. And if this Speech Team advisor was the worst thing that ever happened to them they really haven’t experienced a lot of life. I’m not excusing his behavior. Guy was a jerk.

Unfortunately, false advertising...

This book advertises itself as a 'breakfast club' style friend group who compete on their high school speech team. Which is something I would LOVE to read.
Unfortunately, it is not. It is the adult ramblings of a middle-aged gay man about his sexual exploits and festering insults from his high school coach. Speech team is barely in the book at all. Could have never mentioned speech team, and hardly anything about the book would be changed.
I kept waiting for it to just be a framing device and that it would go back in time, and I'd get a fun breakfast club group of high school misfits finding camaraderie. It never happened.
As someone who competed in speech team competitions and found profound growth confidence and meaning in the activity... God, this was disappointing...

Subject Matter

I gave four stars because this story line made me ponder if I, unknowingly or even maliciously, said an unkind remark that is being carried throughout someone’s life. Words matter

Nauseating and stupid

So trite. I am mad at myself that I wasted my time. Do not bother

………

I wanted so much to love this book. I competed in speech and debate in both high school and college. Most of us were social “outcasts” and found solace and a sense of family from fellow team members.

However, I couldn’t get behind how the entire team was so off put by comments their coach said them that it shaped their future relationships so. Especially with them being non-conforming in high school, that surely they have been called worse on a weekly basis. The character bonds were weak. The storyline was weak, it was just a painful book that was so generic in topic that it could have been titled The Badminton Team and substituted that with speech and it wouldn’t have affected the story at all.

Hilarious and inspiring at the same time; love and friendship trump all

Love this story of a group of friends who have not seen each other since high school. Life has changed them and come together when another of their friends from the speech team commits suicide. I enjoy a book that touches me, either provoking an emotion, sadness, anger, or inspires me. speech team made me laugh out loud and cry at other times, especially the end. this book will appeal to anybody who had a tight group of friends in high school, or wishes they had one!

Loved this story!

Super enjoyable. I think I would prefer the actual book version to the audio, but I loved the story!