Just Listen by. Sarah Dessen | Book Review – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Title: Just Listen

Author: Sarah Dessen

Format: eBook (Libby)

Pages: 371

Publication Date: 4/6/2006

Categories: Young Adult, Contemporary, Teen

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.

Content Warning: sexual assault, eating disorder

So I’m reading this for my read the month (spell the month) challenge and this is for J in January. I read this back in 2006! Yes, I’m old but I was such a big Sarah Dessen back then because it felt like real stories that I related to especially when it came to coming of age as a teen or dealing with complicated family dynamics.

Reading it so many years later 😅 and now as an adult who’s gone through so much – I still appreciate how real this story feels. Annabel is a teen girl, who models for local commercials and ads, she seems to have it all, even two beautiful older sisters who were models too.

But as Annabel tells her story I am immersed in her life. She doesn’t have it all, her sister is dealing with an eating disorder, her best friend hates her, and she’s holding onto a secret and trauma.

I also love that the romance is not the main focus of this book. Owen and Annabel starts out as friends and the more time they spend together it blossoms into something more but it never overtakes the story.

Quotes from the Book:

“I was beginning to see, though, that the unknown wasn’t always the greatest thing to fear. The people who know you best can be riskier, because the words they say and the things they think have the potential to be not only scary but true, as well.”
Just Listen by. Sarah Dessen

“So many versions of just one memory, and yet none of them were right or wrong. Instead, they were all pieces. Only when fitted together, edge to edge, could they even begin to tell the whole story.”
Just Listen by. Sarah Dessen

“I could pretend to leave the past behind, but it would not leave me.”
Just Listen by. Sarah Dessen

“There comes a time in every life when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you’d better learn to know the sound of it. Otherwise you’ll never understand what it’s saying.”
Just Listen by. Sarah Dessen

“All you could do was take on as much weight as you can bear. And if you’re lucky, there’s someone close enough by to shoulder the rest.
Just Listen by. Sarah Dessen

Final Thoughts:

Overall, I still enjoyed the story and kind of miss stories like this. I feel like now I read so much fantasy to escape reality but back in 2006 when I was looking for authors writing about relatable teen and young adult stories, this is what I was addicted to reading, even if by then I was in my 20’s! It’s a quick read and Annabel is a quiet character, because that was kind of her role in her family but I liked seeing her grow and learn more about herself and her strength while hanging out with Owen. Also, because this was published in the early 2000’s I loved how it brought me back to burning CDs and making playlists for people, definitely felt the nostalgia of it.