Just Listen
Fiction
By Sarah Dessen
Reviewed by Meredith Friend
Rated 5 out of 5 Stars
Annabel Greene was the “it” girl. She had everything any high school girl could ever want, but one night, that all changed after a very public, dramatic falling out with her ex-best friend Sophie.
Now Annabel is an outcast, like the very girls she used to torment at Sophie’s side. She sits alone at lunch, trying to keep up the façade that everything in her life is still perfect. Annabel retreats inside herself and stops focusing on the world around her, until Owen sits down next to her one day. Owen, intense and dark, could not be more different than Annabel, but she finds herself being pulled toward his stable, truthful personality. Owen becomes the one person in the world that Annabel can trust, but she still has her doubts.
After last summer’s “incident,” Annabel doesn’t let anyone inside her world anymore. She believes that the only way to keep herself safe is to be alone. But Owen sees right through her, and Annabel knows it. She knows she should tell people what really happened that night, but she can’t bring herself to do it, because telling the truth would change all their lives forever.
Just Listen was a great story about how the worst moments in your life can eventually lead to some of the best. Sarah Dessen does a great job of making the story very relatable. This novel shows how important it is not to keep too many dark secrets, and to just listen to yourself sometimes.
