Book Summary: (May contain spoilers as I am bad at summarizing without giving things away) This story centers around Annabel Greene "the girl who has everything". So it appears in the ad she modeled in; however, she had a rough summer before her junior year of high school. She and her best friend, Sophie, got in a fight due to a situation that made it look like she was hooking up with Sophie's boyfriend. There is really some darker undertones to what really happened but Annabel kept it to herself and now she is isolated from anyone she was once friends with. She begins eating lunch with, near, Owen, a loner that is always listening to music. Eventually they begin talking, arguing, about his strange taste in music that he plays during his radio show. They develop a friendship and start to have some more than friends feelings for each other. Anabel also has some family problems at home with her sister who has an eating disorder. Emily, one of Anabel's mutual friends with Sophie, comes out saying that she was raped by Sophie's boyfriend. She asks Anabel to testify as she assumes that the same thing happened to her. This throws Anabel off and for a while she stops talking to Owen. She talks to Owen eventually about her experience and testifying and things begin to turn around for her. She even starting to become friends with her childhood best friend Clarke.
APA Reference of Book: Dessen, S. (2006). Just Listen. New York, NY: Penguin Group Inc.
Impressions: This book has very intense topics, but I love that there is a sweet undertone with the relationship Annabel has with Owen. I also read The Truth About Forever by the same author and it seems that there is a bit of a formula she follows when writing her books. I enjoyed them both a lot, but this book specifically I appreciated the friendship theme. She was friends with Clarke when she was a kid and then chose Sophie over her, and I understood that feeling from both sides. I can not relate with Annabel as much and I do not know how easy it will be for other readers to relate to her. The situation with Sophie's boyfriend might be something people relate to and understand, but I have never been in a situation like that. Then her family problems I personally have never met someone who suffers from an eating disorder. So there is a lot going on in this book, and maybe everything in this book can be related to. I firmly believe every book has someone that can relate to at least an aspect in it, and that is what makes books powerful. This book is powerful in its own way, it deals with rape, anorexia, loneliness, etc. There is a lot this book can do for a young adult and I think it is definitely worth the read. It has romance, but I do not believe that is the biggest take away from this book. Great read.
Professional Review: "An easily digestible tale about a 17-year-old model who, despite her recent back-to-school clothing commercial, isn't really "[t]he girl who has everything." Annabel secretly wants to quit modeling; one of her sisters has an eating disorder; and their mother's past depression makes expressing any unhappiness feel risky. Underneath Annabel's silence is a secret from the previous spring, a secret that astute readers will decode early on. It's the reason she's a social outcast and it makes her cling extra hard to fake cheerfulness. Oddball schoolmate Owen cracks her shield with candor and music, and Annabel learns to speak her own truth. Readers may be disappointed that after so much buildup to the moments of truth-telling (one to her family, one to Owen), we're not privy to the scenes. Despite dark issues, the overall tone is mild. Dessen's characterizations are glib, each metaphor and major point made explicit. Not deep, but absorbing and enjoyable. (Fiction. YA)"
[Review of the book Just Listen, by S. Dessen]. (2006). Kirkus Reviews, 74(5), 228. Retrieved from http://www.kirkusreviews.com
Library Uses: This would be a good book talk, I think maybe paired with Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, talks about important issues.
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