Just Listen by Sarah Dessen Book Review!

 

Title: Just Listen
Author: Sarah Dessen
Publish Date: April 6, 2006
Publisher: Viking Books
Source: Purchased my own copy!

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.

Penelope's Review

So Sarah Dessen has long been one of my favorite authors, and while I'm sure I read this book many, many years ago, I don't remember so I decided to pick it back up! It was everything I was hoping it would be. Sarah Dessen has this way of packing such a meaningful punch into the smallest of sentences. It's one of the things I admire most about her writing.

In terms of characters, we have Annabel, our main female lead and Owen, our main male lead. Annabel is so relatable, with her feelings of being stuck in the background, being agreeable to keep the peace, and feeling like she has to hide everything deep inside. I loved watching her find her voice throughout the novel, gaining confidence through her friendship with Owen. And Owen himself was... unexpected. I sort of thought we would get a troubled, rough around the edges type character but was surprised at the straight-forward, stand-up, no-nonsense guy we got. I feel like the growth of Annabel's and Owen's relationship was sweet and realistic and I was really happy with how things turned out.

Overall, I found this book really good, as with every other Sarah Dessen novel I've read. While it wasn't in your face and jaw dropping, it was more subtle in its intensity. But I actually kind of liked that. I think a lot of people will get a lot of different things out of this book, and I will forever recommend this author.

Rating: 4/5 Devils!