Just Listen discussion

The book I read for this week was called Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, earlier this semester I read Lock and Key by the same author. It is about a girl named Annabel who is in high school and is not super happy with her life at the moment. Her ex-best friend named Sophie is making life terrible for her over a misunderstanding, her parents can’t focus any time on her at all because her sister just got back from the hospital, and she feels an enormous amount of pressure to be the person to keep her family together. When she meets a fellow outcast named Owen and befriends him, she starts to find where she belongs in this time of her life. I really enjoyed this book because the main character Annabel was different than the typical ‘coming of age/romance novel’ character. She felt very authentic and reacted to situations in a way that very relatable. Even though this book was more of a romantic novel than the last book I read from this author, it was still about family/friendship dynamics and growing up. It included a lot of serious topics but in an easy to read way like eating disorders, self image, sexual assault, anger management, friendship fall outs, and depression. I think one of the most interesting story lines is about Annabel’s sister, Whitney, because she just returned home after being in the hospital for months due to a severe eating disorder. Seeing her recovery process and how it shifts the dynamic in the household as well as Annabel’s personal relationship with her is something I hadn’t encountered in a book before. I would recommend this for high school students just because of the nature of the book, but I think it would be a good way to start important conversations in the classroom. I would definitely recommend it to my friends and I plan on reading more of Sarah Dessen’s books.