So I’ve come to a little TBR drought, as I’ve not been going to the library, but instead of checking out more ebooks, I thought it would be nice to just reread some books that I have! I really loved Sarah Dessen when I was younger, so I decided to reread Just Listen.

Just Listen is the story of Annabel. Annabel is a model, and you’d think that means popular and stress-free, but that is not the case. As the book opens, we can see that Annabel is dealing with some trauma (not specified until much later in the book) and she’s been dropped by her best friend, Sophie. More or less outcasted, Annabel finds herself sitting next to Owen, who had anger management issues but also tells the truth all the time and is a very serious music lover.

What I really like about Sarah Dessen’s books is that even though there’s romance in them, romance is not the main point of the story. Just Listen is all about Annabel as she struggles to connect with her sister and to even admit to herself the truth of what happened that night. While meeting Owen is an important factor in helping her realise the power of speaking the truth, he is not the one who saves her. Annabel is the one that has to speak up in order to heal.

[SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH] As you can probably guess, Just Listen deals with some very heavy topics. Annabel and her sisters have always been models, and it led to one of her sisters (Whitney) developing an eating disorder. At the same time, Annabel also sees her modelling as something that helped bring her mother out of depression, making her desire to give up modelling feel selfish to her. And of course, the sexual assault and the social isolation that Annabel experienced also contribute to a heavy mood in the book. I thought that Dessen managed to handle all these issues very well and the book felt very realistic as a result.

Overall, Just Listen manages to deal with a lot of heavy topics in one contemporary YA book. I think Dessen has written a relatable and powerful novel about trauma, truth, and healing.