Book Review: Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

Title: Just Listen
Author(s): Sarah Dessen
Release Date: April 6th, 2006
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Pages: 371
Format: Paperback

Synopsis (Goodreads): 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.

My Review: This wasn't my first Sarah Dessen book, but it was the one I was the most impressed with. Just Listen had so much heart and soul in the pages of it that I was pulled in and when I sat down to read, I would lose track of time completely.

Annabel was my favorite thing about this book. She was so scared and quiet and unable to open up to anyone at the beginning of the book that I wasn't sure what was going to happen. But then she met Owen and, while she was still scared to speak, things got to get better. And with his help, she could finally say what had been on her mind for months.

The plot of this book was so intricate. There were so many things in it that I didn't know how Sarah Dessen was going to pull it all together. With Whitney's eating disorder and the mysterious ending of Sophie and Annabel's friendship, among other things, I was really nervous if she would pull it all together. But she did and it was wonderful.

When I first started reading the book and learning about Annabel and Sophie's friendship, I was really curious about what caused it to crash. About halfway through the book I started to guess what had happened, and when I found out I was right I was wondering how Dessen would pull it off. But she had done such a great job with everything so far that I didn't have a doubt that she could pull this off too. The writing in this book is well worth your time.

Overall Rating: 5/5 worms. This book had everything. Great characters, great plot, and great writing, all rolled up into one. This book is fantastic and definitely worth your time. It is definitely one of my favorite reads this year!