Just Listen is about Annabel Greene, the youngest of three girls. While her life seems perfect on the outside - she and her sisters are fairly successful models, she's friends with one of the most popular girls in school and has a busy social life - things are actually unraveling on the inside and she finds she has no one to open up to. After an event that takes away her friendships and social life concludes her school year, she starts the next year alone, isolated, and unsure of how to cope - until she meets Owen Armstrong, another loner like her.

This book has many universal themes on many levels, but one of the biggest ones is not judging situations or people until you've really taken the time to learn about them. As things progress in the book, Annabel realizes the one thing she's been so afraid of - people coming to quick conclusions about her - is something she'd been doing to other people.

For me it started off a little slow and I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to enjoy it, but after sticking with it I really did enjoy it. ( )

This was my first Sarah Dessen book and man I was hooked so quick! ( )

Not all is as it seems in the Greene’s modern glass home. From the outside, sisters Annabel, Whitney and Kirsten Greene look perfect. All three are models, and Annabel starred in a commercial as the high school girl who has everything. Under the surface though, it’s an entirely different story.


Sarah Dessen's Just Listen takes a look inside the glass house. Whitney has an eating disorder which she doesn’t want to acknowledge, Kirsten is the oldest and doesn’t want to model anymore, and then there’s Annabel. After her best friend dumps her, Annabel spends her summer in a self-imposed social exile. She starts her junior year alone and friendless. Sitting alone at lunch, Annabel meets Owen, a tall, music-obsessed, “bad-boy” who teaches her about what it means to be honest. Through their friendship Annabel finds her voice and begins to use it.

One of the things I love about Sarah Dessen’s books is that, while they can be predictable, I always find characters with whom I can identify.

People-pleasing Annabel can’t stand to disappoint. She goes to great lengths in order to keep up appearances, even if it means lying. Avoidance is her modus operandi. She avoids what happened at a party before the summer; she avoids Clarke, her childhood best friend; she avoids dealing with Whitney’s eating disorder; she avoids telling her mother she no longer wants to model. She learns from Owen that lies by omission are still lies.

I used to believe that everyone had to like me or agree with me. I wish I had “an Owen” to inspire me to live in complete honesty, not mean-spirited, unsolicited criticism masquerading as honesty, but the kind that enables me to take ownership of my feelings and opinions. It has taken me a long time begin to understand that I have to respect myself, and I can’t avoid situations hoping that they will magically change. In facing things as they really are, I learn to accept them and, as Annabel does, become the person I am supposed to be. ( )

This was a 3/5 up until the last 75 pages or so, then I was pulled in and hooked and actually teared up at one point. overall, not the best but a pretty decent read ( )

Halfway in I got a feeling like I've read it already. I vaguely remember flipping through, so it's probably that.

And I'm not too invested here. A glimpse of Wes and Macy - and off I was deliriously happy and planning a re-read. That shows my emotional investment quite clearly.

Basically, I liked it well enough, considering.
I was actually tempted to just give up - did not really care about Annabel. Owen's personality only shined through at the very end. Not cool.

The last part of the book is the strongest.
I loved the family dynamics, but was left wanting more (quantity-wise).

The whole thing read a little flat and a bit unrealistic.

FINAL VERDICT: Find something else, please. I cannot in good conscience recommend this book ( )