Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

This is a young adult fiction novel about Annabel who is in her junior year of high school. Annabel is dealing with family issues (her sister's eating disorder and wanting to tell her mom that she no longer wants to work as a model) and friend issues (estrangement from her closest friends, including Sophie, who thinks Annabel slept with Sophie's boyfriend). Annabel starts hanging out with Owen Armstrong who is the loner at school. He encourages her to get in touch with her feelings and to speak the truth about how she feels and what she wants.


I really enjoyed this book. The characters are complex and there's a lot of deeper themes throughout the book. I wish that I had had Dessen's books to read when I was in junior high and high school. I think that they would have helped me put more words to my experiences and opened my mind to other ways of dealing with things. Alas, I still enjoy Dessen's books now because they still speak to me about the importance of being true to myself.

Some quotes from the book:

"...at the very least, you should tell yourself the truth. If you can't trust yourself, who can you trust?"

"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."