Spoken

A Novel

By: Melanie Weiss

Narrated by: Mike Peters

Winner of a Readers' Favorite International Book Award for Young Adult-Social Issues.

“While a story of self-discovery, Spoken lends itself to a different curricular option for teachers, a world of possibilities to young readers, and a special inspiration to biological parents. I really enjoyed Spoken.”(Readers’ Favorite Review)

High school freshman High school freshman Roman Santi has everything - good looks, great friends, a mansion with an infinity swimming pool - except the one thing he really wants. A relationship with his father. When Roman’s life gets turned upside down, (thanks, Mom!?), he is forced to leave his pampered Hollywood lifestyle and move into his grandparents’ Midwestern home.

Sleeping on a lumpy pullout sofa and starting at a new high school is the worst, but Roman’s life starts to look up when his pink-haired friend, Zuzu, and his crush, a classmate named Claire, introduce him to performance poetry through the high school's Spoken Word Club. While his mom is flying back and forth to LA, trying to return them to the life they had, Roman becomes part of a diverse group of characters who challenge his rather privileged view of the world. Through Spoken Word, Roman recognizes the hole in his own life he needs to fill and discovers his voice. Spoken Word leads Roman on a journey of new friendships, first love, and finding the dad he never knew.

Spoken is an uplifting, funny, and heartfelt coming-of-age story that captures how the honesty of performance poetry binds together students from all different walks of life and forever changes Roman’s life.

©2019 Melanie Weiss (P)2022 Melanie Weiss/Rosehip Publishing

Fantastic YA novel!

I listened to the audio version of this Young Adult novel. This is an award winning novel and I can see why. It had so many positive things going on in it to inspire the young (and the young at heart).

The title of Spoken refers to "Spoken Word", which is a performance based poetry club in which the high school kids are encouraged to dig down deep and write about their feelings. For Roman, it is a way into acceptance at a new school after his mom messes up her relationship with a rich producer in LA and uproots him back to live in a small town with his grandparents, where he has to sleep on their fold out sofa. He thinks he's lost everything, but is surprised when he discovers that he just may have found everything that he didn't even know his life was lacking.

I thought the choice of Mike Peters was interesting. His voice is kind of rough, but it definitely worked for a teenage boy. I enjoyed both the story and the narration.

I was given a complimentary copy of this audiobook. All thoughts are my own.

A very good story.

This is a story for young adults and those older adults wo enjoy a good clean story! Well written. I would listen to otherstories by Melanie Weiss.

The narration was good. I like Mike Peters for this story. I would listen to other books narrated by him

I received this free book at my request and am voluntarily leaving this review.

Great coming of age story!!

Enjoyed listening to this coming of age story. The characters were very relatable and I looked forward to listening as the story unfolded.

Good story; flat narration

Roman is a high school freshman who has a great life in Los Angeles, right up until his mother's actions cause his life to implode. Suddenly, they're moving in with his grandparents in the midwest, and he's going to a brand new school. But things start to look up with the help of a new friend Zuzu and a pretty girl named Claire, both of whom introduce him to the school's Spoken Word Club.

While Roman's mom is traveling back and forth to L.A. to try and return them to their old life, Roman is discovering himself through performance poetry. When Roman gets the chance to meet the father he's never met, Roman has some big decisions to make.

I liked the basic components of this story - a young teen learning about himself through poetry, challenging the assumptions he's had about his life so far, and trying to decide whether or not he should meet the father he's never met - but they never seemed to come together for me. The story fell flat.

I think a lot of that has to do with the narrator of the audiobook, though. Mike Peters' performance was technically correct, in that he read the correct words. But there was little to no emotion conveyed in his voice. While it wasn't necessarily monotone, it was very close. Even when reading the scenes when Roman and the other kids are performing their poetry, the tone of his voice doesn't change. I would hope that reading the book, as opposed to listening to it, would allow for more of a connection with the characters. Unfortunately, I am not at all inclined toward reading it to see.