Review: Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

Annabel Green is "the girl who has everything" — at least that's what she portrays in her modeling shoots. But Annabel's life is far from perfect. Her friendship with Sophie ended bitterly, and her older sister's eating disorder is weighing down the entire family. Isolated and ostracized at school and at home, Annabel retreats into silent acceptance. Then she meets Owen–-intense, music obsessed, and determined to always tell the truth. And with his guidance, Annabel learns to just listen to herself and gains the courage to speak honestly. But will she be able to tell everyone what really happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends? 


Right off the bat, this book was a lot heavier than I expected. Even at the beginning, I was really thrown off guard by it because I wasn't expecting it. I think it's the book that deals with the most dark/heavy subjects that I've read by Sarah Dessen. I had to take breaks, at first, to gather myself. Later on, after everything is established, I had to do this less often.

The writing style, as always with Sarah Dessen, is just beautiful. It's easy to get into and just throws you into the world and the characters effortlessly - it was just so easy to get into the book. I just got completely lost in the world and characters to the point where I read nearly two hundred pages in a day which I absolutely never do. I just didn't want to stop reading. The side characters also surprised me with how absolutely incredible they were. They were so multi-layered and added so much to the story. It would not be the same without them and I found myself loving them just as much, if not more, than our main characters. Annabel's sisters were probably my favorite characters.

The writing style, and the story itself, is so realistic. I was able to imagine my old high school and the people I know throughout the story and everything just fit. The family dynamics shown in the story - even the friendship dynamics - are so realistic as well and relatable. I didn't just care about the romance of the book - though that was definitely a huge upside of the story - but it was so easy to care about Annabel and her life as well.

That being said, I would have preferred just a little more romance. I wanted an Owen Armstrong in my life and to me, that is the sign of a good romance. So I just wished there was a little bit more focus on the romantic relationship forming. I think it could've been balanced better but just a bit because there was no portion of the story that I felt bored. I was interested throughout the entire thing.

We followed two storylines, that occurred respectively in the past and the present which is heavily effected by the past. They were distinct, easy to follow and blended well together. Each storyline also had a different focus. I think the past storyline focused a lot on her friends and the present one more on her family. I just wish they was a clearer relationship between the timelines. For example, there were stories she told about her friendships and her sisters that both occurred in the past but there really wasn't anything, until the end, that said when each storyline occurred in reference to the other. This really doesn't take anything away from the book and it's easy to ignore but it was something I wondered about while reading. It would have been even better to intertwine the stories even more. Even if it does it near the end.

Also, one of the largest focus of the story was Annabel's friendship with her best friend Sophie. It's to be expected that the conclusion would focus an equal amount of time on how she ended up. But no. Sophie was mentioned at the end for not even a paragraph. I wanted more focus on her at the end! Especially when she was so crucial to the story. It didn't make sense for her to be glossed over like that.

I did have a few problems with the characters. Owen was amazing and I loved him. But, especially when he's first introduced, I couldn't help but feel that he was too pretentious in a way most hipsters are. I cringed a lot when he spoke. But as the book progressed, either I stopped noticing it, it became more bare-able or I saw this trait to be more ironic than real. Either way, it's just a problem in the beginning.

Annabel is where I had my biggest issue.  Annabel, to be put simply, was so annoying. I saw her as a doormat. I think that was the point, that was how she was meant to be characterized. But still, it got to be ridiculous. I was frustrated with her and though I absolutely adored this book, she was a huge reason why my rating was docked down from what it would have been otherwise.

A small thing that I always love to see, and anticipate in Dessen's books, I noticed more in this book than the others. She alludes a lot to her previous works, either by including past characters, locations or sayings. There were a lot in this book! I absolutely loved it. I loved seeing characters I had already read about, connecting this book to the others and just feeling as though this was a larger world than just what was being seen.

Sarah Dessen just never disappoints. This was one of her better books and though it's not a five star book, it's definitely right up there as one of my favorite Dessen books. The utilization of music and focus on family and the truth was so powerful. I felt really connected with the story and the characters.