Review - Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

Title and Author: Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

Publisher: Viking Juvenile

Publication Date: April 6th, 2006

Paperback/Hardcover: 384

Genre: Young Adult

Summary:

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’ve read Just Listen a while back, and like every other book by Sarah Dessen I’ve read so far. I really liked it.

Annabel is a teenager trying to deal with several different issues. She tries to pretend everything is okay but it becomes increasingly hard to pretend her family is falling apart and that her best friend no longer speaks to her.

Annabel tries to pretend her life is perfect but she quickly realizes nothing is perfect, especially when she befriends Owen, who forces her to see things in a different way

In this book Sarah Dessen writes in a mixture of flashbacks and present situations, revealing more and more about Annabel’s story as time goes by.

I think it’s easy to relate to Annabel. Even though some people seem to think she was weak but I think she was simply confused. She kept too many things to herself. When she meets Owens he starts to change. He forces her to start being honest with others, and most of all, with herself. Her carefully constructed façade of everything is fine starts to crumble then.

Owen is a good character as well. Sarah Dessen definitely knows how to make her male characters extremely likeable and all around amazing. I loved the fact Owen is extremely honest and that music meant so much to him. Owen looks like your average bad boy but he’s much, much more than that.

I enjoyed the relationship between Annabel and Owen and now it developed. They are two very different people but they somehow fit well together.

All in all I really enjoyed this book. It deals with issues some teenagers, and adults, as well, have to face like the importance of family, friendship and of being yourself. I loved the fact music played such an important part in the book as well.

This book is extremely well written and the dialogue between the characters is great.. It a fast read I think any YA fan will be able to enjoy.

Rating: Worth Your Time (4 Stars)

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