Just Listen

by Sarah Dessen (Goodreads author)

book data

5,441 ratings, 4.23 average rating, 902 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		46%
4		34%
3		15%
2		3%
1		0%

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published

April 6th 2006 by Viking Juvenile

binding

Hardcover, 384 pages

characters

Annabel Greene, Owen Armstrong, Whitney Greene

setting

The United States

isbn

0670061050 (isbn13: 9780670061051)

description

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 Stor...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 7,969)

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05/06/08

Jennifer Wardrip rated it:

bookshelves: gold-star-award, personal-read, trt-reviews

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

Up until now, THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER has always been my favorite Sarah Dessen book. Now that I've read JUST LISTEN, however, I think there's a tie! The characters of this latest release are so honestly real, their dialogue perfectly placed, that you can't help but be pulled into the life and times of Annabel Greene.

Of course everyone thinks that Annabel has the perfect life. She's a model who has been in television commercials, in prin...more Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

Up until now, THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER has always been my favorite Sarah Dessen book. Now that I've read JUST LISTEN, however, I think there's a tie! The characters of this latest release are so honestly real, their dialogue perfectly placed, that you can't help but be pulled into the life and times of Annabel Greene.

Of course everyone thinks that Annabel has the perfect life. She's a model who has been in television commercials, in print ads, and in fashion shows at the local mall. She's popular at school, even if it is mostly because she's best friends with Sophie, the high school girl who demands attention. Her father is an architect who designed their house of glass; her mother lives for Annabel's modeling; she has two older sisters, Kirsten and Whitney, who are both former models themselves.

Under all of that perfection, of course, lies the real Annabel. The one who suffered from something so horrible at the end of the last school year that she's lost not only her best friend, but her self-respect. Her family is so consumed with Whitney's eating disorder, with Kirsten's college life far away in New York, with keeping everything under control that Annabel doesn't tell them what's happened--the things that are still happening every day she goes to school just dreading the day. She doesn't want to add more problems to the mix; in fact, she lies by omission, simply avoiding the truth rather than shattering her family's illusions.

But then Annabel meets Owen Armstrong, a boy she once watched punch out another student, then calmly walk away. Owen keeps to himself, never seems to be without his iPod, and doesn't appear to need any friends. But after he reaches out a hand to her, literally, after she's sick outside of school one day, a budding relationship of friendship begins to build between the guy who never lies, no matter what--and the girl who lies to protect other's feelings, namely her own.

I loved JUST LISTEN. Owen is a character that will immediately grab your interest, especially with lines like "...for me, not saying how I feel when I feel it is a bad move. So I don't do it. Look at it this way: I might be saying you're fat, but at least I'm not punching you in the face." As for Annabel, the things she's holding inside are tearing her apart, and, in the end, it's the strength of her sisters that gets her to ask for help.

The characters of Kirsten and Whitney are complicated and complex, and I have to admit that there's a part near the end of the book in which the sisters come together that had me crying like a baby. As for Annabel, it's not all about telling the truth, but about listening, not just to others, but mostly to that voice inside of her:

"...this is what happens when you try to run from the past. It doesn't just catch up: it overtakes, blotting out the future, the landscape, the very sky, until there is no path left except that which leads through it, the only one that can ever get you home." (less)

Like this review? yes (8 people liked it)

2 comments

04/07/08

Annie rated it:

Read in April, 2008

recommends it for: junior high schoolers, their teachers.

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

This is YA fiction, pretty enjoyable, though I'm not dashing off to finish it by any means.

It's about a girl who is kind of caught up in how she wants to be seen-- a model, actually. Like, literally, that is her job. And she apparently made some pretty terrible decisions that cost her at least a couple of friendships and led her to the kind of ostracism you can face in junior high and high school. And then she befriends another "outcast" and begins her first real friendship...more This is YA fiction, pretty enjoyable, though I'm not dashing off to finish it by any means.

It's about a girl who is kind of caught up in how she wants to be seen-- a model, actually. Like, literally, that is her job. And she apparently made some pretty terrible decisions that cost her at least a couple of friendships and led her to the kind of ostracism you can face in junior high and high school. And then she befriends another "outcast" and begins her first real friendship (my assessment, not necessarily hers or the authors.)

There's kind of a lot in it. Mean girls. Eating disorders. Family secrets. Depression. And if I am reading the foreshadowing correctly, I think we've got a history of sexual abuse about to be disclosed. Pretty heavy stuff, but not all that heavy-handed.

My one complaint here is that the main "mean girl," Sophie, is not a character at all. Like, the author doesn't have an actual person in mind, only a conglomeration of character traits and tics. I don't actually believe in this girl, not because I haven't met girls who appeared to be like this girl, but more because I think those girls only appeared to be this way. I mean, from my vantage point at the time, the girl who "dumped" me in junior high was just mean and petty and a snob. But that girl had her own interior life, and I know now that a) she was a lot more complicated, b) she was doing what she had seen modeled for her, and c) she had no idea how to change our relationship and she didn't like it the way it was. The author seems to give a passing nod to "she is more complicated" with the main character acknowledging that Sophie's parents had a bad break-up and now Sophie and her mom are impoverished, but to me, it mostly reads like the author didn't bother creating an inner life for this antagonist.

This is totally making me think about my own writing, which, A+ for that. I really want to allow my characters their own rich lives off-page, if that makes sense. I don't have to tell their stories, but I have to at least know that they have them, you know?

eta: finished the book. The middle-to-end sort of dragged there; there was a totally perfect awesome moment for resolution that the protagonist didn't take, for weak reasons. It was, I think, the only moment of the plot that felt like a false note to me. Slightly disappointing.

This was more than made up for by the actual resolution of the storylines. I really liked these characters, in the end, and I was pleasantly surprised by the denouement of the sexual abuse storyline.

So, in summary, solidly good book, somewhat predictable but entertaining. And I am actually going to miss these characters now that I am done!(less)

Like this review? yes (6 people liked it)

1 comment

06/28/07

Erin rated it:

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: Fans of "Speak"

Annabel Green lives in a glass house - literally. But even inside of the glass house that her father built, she realizes that it is easy to hide secrets. It is easy to hide the fact that her mother has become a different person since her grandmother’s death. That her oldest sister has moved away, leaving a gaping hole in the family.

It is easy to hide the fact that her other sister is suffering from an eating disorder that her parents choose to dismiss until it’s almost too lat...more

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03/22/09

Tasha rated it:

Am I the only person who is tired of Sarah Dessen?
I loved the first book of hers I read, Someone Like You, but unfortunately it seems like the more books of hers I read, the more formulaic her writing becomes.
It seems like every novel she writes follows this structure:
1) Girl (with VERY uncommon name) is unhappy about something in her life
2) Girl with very uncommon name meets BOY with very uncommon name
3) Girl and Boy decide to date
4) Big major conflict in sto...more

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11/07/08

Carla rated it:

Annabel is a teenage girl that is having a few problems in her life, but what teenage girl does not? She is wishing she could take back ever meeting Sophie. Sophie has cause a lot of trouble in her life and in other people’s lives. They use to be friends, but over the summer at a party, Sophie caught Annabel with her boyfriend. Annabel is trying to fix everything that is wrong with her own life and problems within her family. She cannot do it all on her own and she needs help; she needs s...more

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09/16/08

Samantha Medeiros rated it:

Read in November, 2008

I picked the book, Just Listen ...<u/>, by Sarah Dessen, to read for my book report because Sarah Dessen is one of my all-time favorite authors. Her writing not only captivates me, but also inspires me. Dessen writes from a troubling teenager's point of view in which she expresses the many issues that Annabel faces. This book is about a girl, Annabel Greene, who is a model that appears in a commercial portraying as the girl that has it all. But in reality, she has nothing: no friends becau...more

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04/03/08

Colleen rated it:

This book, Just Listen is a contemporary fiction book. The main character, Annabelle Greene is a Midwestern sophomore who starts out her school year without friends because of an incident that happened last year. She is ostracized by everyone in the school except a large, angry boy named Owen Armstrong and her ex-best friend Sophie who constantly insults her. She becomes friends with Owen and learns he is in anger management, and he teaches her how to confront people and tell the truth, especial...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

2 comments

03/19/08

Snorkle rated it:

bookshelves: read-2008, young-adult

Read in March, 2008

You'd think the life of a model would be perfect and hassle-free, but Annabel's life is anything but perfect. It's the fall of her junior year and even though in all the adds it looks like she's got it all, Annabel feels like her life is just falling apart. Between her former best friends vicious rumors and her sister's sickness at home, Annabel just doesn't know how to cope. It's not until she meets Owen Armstrong, the super tall, music obsessed loner, that Annabel starts to see thinks in a dif...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

5 comments

02/28/08

Wee!wawaLAA!!! rated it:

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Wee!wawaLAA!!! by: Waffle?
recommends it for: teenagers, not-into-pop-music people

So far, the storyline's OK, but not the best I've ever seen. Like Annabel is the model, but she hates the job, but doesn't want her mom to be hurt with the decision. So she constantly tells less than the actual truth and denies being a liar. Until she met Owen Armstrong, who helped her when she was getting hurt by all these assholed gossipers. Then all they talk about is like music and jobs, which is kinda boring. Apparently Annabel is one of the more preppy girls who like the more modern pop so...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

111 comments

02/27/08

Waffle...♥ rated it:

bookshelves: eighth-grade, favorites, inspirational, romance, young-adult

Read in March, 2008

recommended to Waffle...♥ by: Me? o-o;
recommends it for: Grades 8-12

This book is ALOT like The Truth About Forever but the story line is very different... personally I liked The Truth About Forever better because it's much more touching and sweet... but this book teaches a great deal of a lesson about truth. Truth haunts and lingers over you no matter what and you can never let it go. If you chose to ignore it... its going to overtake your future and the only way out is to follow it through.

Shhh, Annabel. It's just me. That part was fantastic! I rea...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comment

06/15/07

Tamara rated it:

bookshelves: teen

Read in June, 2007

Though I liked "This Lullaby" by Sarah Dessen better, this book does have some redeeming qualities.

This is about a girl who is dealing with all of the typical teenage problems (loss of best friend, sexual assault, sister with eating disorder, emotionally unstable mother, etc.) The book starts out slow and is predictable for about the first 50 pages.

However, then Sarah Dessen's charm kicks in. Enter: the boy music snob we've all learned to love, a strong moral ...more

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03/04/08

Megan rated it:

bookshelves: book-report-books

Read in February, 2008

Annabel Greene's family looks perfect, but really things have been pretty rough. Annabel's sister Whitney is battling an eating disorder, which has the whole family unbalenced, while Annabel is hiding a pretty big secret as well. Annabel hates to confront others, so instead of telling them how she really feels she tells them just what they want to hear, even if it makes her unhappy. During Summer her and her friend Sophie get in a fight, she does everything she can to avoid telling others what h...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comment

12/06/08

Sarah rated it:

Read in December, 2008

Another excellent story from Sarah Dessen, I felt this book was powerfully written and taught many life lessons in about 400 pages. Captivating and suspenseful at times, this book would have been flawless if the copy I was reading from the library did not have torn pages every five pages. Which means I missed out on dynamic parts, climatic parts, and the most suspenseful parts. THANKS A LOT ASSHOLE. Anyways, great book, would reccommend for fans of Dessen's other books :]

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11/19/07

Taylor S rated it:

bookshelves: greatest-books-ever-written

Read in May, 2007

recommended to Taylor S by: my mom
recommends it for: anybody

Annabel is a senior in high school and she's not doing that great. Her best friend hates her because of some false accusations, Annabel's sister has a n eating disorder, and her parents aren't that much help. One day at school, alone and friendless, Annabel meets Owen. Owen strives on confrontation as much as Annabel tries to avoid it. He teaches Annabel about thinking for herself and deciding her own decisions.
When Annabel and Owen get in a fight and everything comes full circle, Annabel...more

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

2 comments

02/09/09

Lindsey rated it:

bookshelves: audio-books, ladies, ladies-light, realistic-fiction, romance, teen

Read in March, 2009

Annabelle has spent her entire summer sequestered after an incident at a end-of-school party in which she was humiliated in front of all her friends. Her best friend is no longer speaking to her, and we find out in progressive flashblack clips what exactly happened. Before Annabelle can get too lonely, she meets fellow social outcast Owen who teaches her the virtues of honesty and gives her the confidence to come clean about her secrets.

If this storyline sounds familiar, it's bec...more

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12/26/07

Molly rated it:

Read in March, 2008

recommends it for: Stephenie Meyer fan

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Like this review? yes (1 person liked it)

1 comment

03/17/09

Lauren added it

Read in March, 2009

I am reading the book Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen. So far, I really like it. I would definitely recommend this book to all teens. I think everyone could find something in this book they can relate to. Whether it’s about the main character Annabel’s problems with friends, the boy she meets, or wanting to tell her mother something difficult and needing to find the strength to do it. Also readers might be able to relate to how Annabel’s sister has an eating disorder. You see how the disorder...more

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03/17/09

Hanah marked it as to-read

bookshelves: to-read

Just Listen

I really recommend the book Just Listen. I recommend it because it is very easy to relate to. It’s about a girl named Annabel who is a model along with her two sisters. One sister goes anorexic and gets very ill. One night Annabel woke up to have a snack and she found her sister lying passed out on the floor. Her anorexia had gotten to a point where it was starting to kill her, so her parents made her go to a specialist.
Meanwhile, Annabel meets a guy name...more

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02/03/09

Katie rated it:

Read in February, 2009

This is the second time I've read this book, and my opinion basically didn't change between readings. "The Truth About Forever" definitely remains my favorite of Dessen's books. This story is just as empathetically written, allowing easy access to the protagonist's thoughts and feelings. The structure and many of the emotional fluxes are a little too similar to "Truth" to acknowledge this later book as wonderful in its own right.

I do enjoy Dessen's tendancy to co...more

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01/31/09

Alysha Speer rated it:

bookshelves: confidence, misfortune, romantic

Read in January, 2009

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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What is your favourite book by Sarah Dessen?

Lock and Key

1 vote, 25.0%

Someone Like You

0 votes, 0.0%

The Truth About Forever

0 votes, 0.0%

Just Listen

2 votes, 50.0%

Keeping the Moon

1 vote, 25.0%

Dreamland This Lullaby

0 votes, 0.0%

How to Deal movie tie-in

0 votes, 0.0%

That Summer

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quotes from this book

"So you're always honest," I said. "Aren't you?" "No," I told him. "I'm not." "Well, that's good to know, I guess." "I'm not saying I'm a liar," I told him. He raised his eyebrows. "That's not how I meant it, anyways." "How'd you mean it, then?" "I just...I don't always say what I feel." "Why not?" "Because the truth sometimes hurts," I said. "Yeah," he said. "So do lies, though." More quotes...