Book Review: Just Listen

Title: Just Listen
Author: Sarah Dessen
Publisher: Viking
Rating: 5

Just Listen Cover Image

Synopsis (via Goodreads): Last year, Annabel was "the girl who has everything"— at least that's the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf's Department Store. This year, she's the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong. Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen's help, maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.

Review: I love anything and everything Sarah Dessen. Honestly, I think there was only one book of hers that I'm not a big fan of, (Dreamland). Anything else, I love and get completely absorbed into. Her writing just amazes me and gets me intrigued from the first sentence. I haven't seen a sequel to any of her original books and in a way, I like that. She just starts writing a completely different story with a completely different character. I can't wait until she releases another novel. I don't know why it took me so long to read Just Listen. The first book I read by Sarah Dessen was Someone Like You. After falling in love with that one, I started to read all of her other novels, but for some reason never came around to reading this one. Now, I'm glad I did.

Annabel is a type of girl I would never imagine a model to be. Maybe I get this opinion from the many episodes of Toddlers & Tiaras, but in my mind models are more like Sophie: self-centered, bossy, and emerged in their own beauty. Yes, there are people like Sophie in the world and yes, I hated her throughout this story. Many times I found my self doing facepalms after Annabel made her friend choices, yet there was nothing I could do to change the decisions other than keep reading and see if she would change them in the end.

At first glance, Owen appears to be a timid, almost non-approachable person. The rumors about him give him an extra edge that starts to dull when he and Annabel becomes friends. It's strange how people can change you, but after meeting Owen, Annabel learns how important it is to speak up and just listen.

Just Listen wasn't my favorite book by Sarah Dessen, but it's not one I disliked either. I'm still shocked at how I haven't read this book until now. In all of her novels, a message slaps you in the face and gets you thinking. This novel especially. Messages in books are all read in a different way. What message did you get when you read Just Listen?

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