Ashley writing arts Hall **Just listen**There are books that are intriguing enough to get through and there are books that drag on without getting to the point. Most are perpetual and relentless. Then, there are books that light a dark tunnel the end of the railroad. They are intense and heartwarming. They give you enlightenment and inspiration. They make you want to just listen. That is why the title of my book fits so well with the novel. You want to listen to her passionate story about the life of a teenage girl. The enigma and suspense will keep you jumping out of our seat. Sarah Dessen knows how to put an astonishing novel that can relate to teenage girls together. This book is fictional but very real and honest. Sarah Dessen doesn’t hold back. This book is great because of the well drawn characters, the relation between teenage girls, the theme that everything is not what it seems and the great immense plot. Annabel Greene, a 16 teen your old girl, seems to have the life of the ideal teen. She’s got the friends, the clothes, the job, the family and the life. Outsiders thought they knew what she was all about. They thought they knew her life, her story and the reason why she and her best friend Sophie stopped being friends. They had he story all wrong. Not even Annabel had the story right. She had to come to terms with what happened on her own. Every girl can relate on some level with this because there’s always a time in your life where people misunderstand you and you feel isolated and alone. In some cases, girls are severely bullied and feel like there is nobody that will understand them which is how Annabel feels. Her family wasn’t the most functional but it had gotten worse as her older sister developed an eating disorder. She almost dies from dehydration and her mom loses it. The only thing that keeps her mother sane is keeping up and managing Annabel’s modeling. The thing is, Annabel doesn’t want to model anymore but she’s scared that if she stops, her mother will fall into the blank and scary state of hysteria she was in when her grandmother had died.Sarah Dessen took the theme that everything is not what it seems and displayed it extremely well. People make assumptions about people they don’t know every day. You may think you know someone but you never really know them like they know themselves. As Sarah Dessen said in her book, “Don’t think or judge, just listening”. You never know the things you could find out about someone by just listening to what they have to say and walking in their shoes. If people tried to step into Annabel’s shoes, they would realize they were be two sizes two small and her feet had no room in there. She had secrets that didn’t seem real to her and everything may look perfect on the inside, but it’s the inside that really counts. The book has so many deep dark secrets and which keeps the plot interesting. It is so motivating and attention grabbing and it tells us all of the things adults think we are too young to hear. Things start to change for Annabel after a nasty fight with Sophie. She meets Owen. He is tall, scary, all dressed in black and he always had headphones in his ears. People always inferred that he was probably listening to something like heavy metal or something about hurting someone. Owen usually kept to himself and as Annabel began to reveal the other side of him; she realized that she was making the wrong assumptions. He was very true, honest and most definitely music obsessed and although he had past anger management issues, he was very kind and helpful.Her story is so remarkable; you want to read all the secrets yourself. No review can some up the words for this genuine novel. All the unscrambled situations will work itself out in the end. Sarah Dessen will not disappoint the young teen readers. Once you start you won’t be able to stop. That’s a promise.
"The best way out is always through." This book kept me thinking...How many times did you answer to the question "how are you" with just "fine", or "I’m ok"?How many times did you feel like your heart was breaking but you couldn't make it right?How many of your dark, inside secrets have made your heart break a little bit more every day?How many times did you need help but you didn't know how to ask for it?How many people tried to be part of your life, but you kept them in dark?How many times when someone got too close to you, did you push that person away?How many times did you have so much to tell, but didn’t find the words?How many times silence got so loud that you couldn't bear to listen to it any longer?Someone said that the mp3 players were made for the people that can’t handle their own thoughts… So tell me, how many times did you get yourself lost in music, not wanting to hear the rhythm of your own heartbeat?Too many times to count.There are secrets that we keep safe in our heart, there are things that could hurt the people we love if we let them out, there are friendships lost between the layers of time, and there are people that get to know us better than anyone because they know how to look into our heart..For all these, there is this book – about broken hearts, and lost dreams, about loneliness, and silent cries, about being too late and second chances, about love in every form we can find it.And for all those people we need to do one thing: just listen. In this story we meet Annabel - a girl that has lost her old friends, her old life and eventually, herself.She doesn’t know what to do with her life, she doesn’t know how to be part of her family that seems to be falling apart, she doesn’t know how to say “I’m sorry”, she doesn’t know how to say what’s wrong with her, and she doesn’t know what to do with all the bad things that happened to her and she didn’t say a word to no one about.When one boy from school, Owen, starts hanging with her and challenging her to put into words her real feelings as they are, the chaos that her life has become seems to get bigger, and the only way for her to make things right is to start being honest with the people around her (her mother, her friends, even Owen), and more than that, to be honest with herself. "Plus there's the fact that music is a total constant. That's why we have such a strong visceral connection to it, you know? Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in you or the world, that one song stays the same, just like that moment."You would think that telling the truth is as easy as breathing, but is it? Who decides if a lie is big or small; if a lie can make us happy or sad? And if we say the truth, will it make a difference? And how do you know, whom you can trust with your secrets? And how do you know if they will believe the truth or they will think that it’s another lie?How do you say what you want, when you don’t even know it, and how will you face the truth when you’re trying to run away from it?Yes, we live in a world full of lies – some of them are meant to make us feel better, some are meant to make us cry; some of us can make the difference between a dark secret and a light lie, but most of us are starting to forget what being honest really is: not to say all that you think, but to think all that you say!So, the next time your heart is telling you its truth.. just listen! Yeah. Don't think, or judge. Just Listen. This review can also be found at ReadingAfterMidnight.com____________________________________________Blog (EN) | Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr | Bloglovin' | Blog (RO)____________________________________________
What do You think about Just Listen (2006)?
This book is A LOT 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 really thought it was only Will's evil words repeating over and over in her mind killing her but actually it was her all along! To tell her to listen to herself, her heart... that was great! Rolly is hilarious! He falls in love with a girl named Clark, one of the most stupidest way I've heard of... she punched him, REALLY hard. LOL! I also really loved how the dad explained why the past, our history, is so important. "No matter how much time has passed, these things still affect us and the world we live in. If you don't pay attention to the past, you'll never understand the future. It's all linked together. You see what I'm saying?" Our past is always there, we can choose to ignore it, but it's still there. ROFL On page 191!"On our other side, there was a couple about our age eating waffles, both in running clothes: The girl had blonde hair and an elastic around her wrist, while the guy was taller and darker, the bottom part of a tattoo just visible under his shirtsleeve."LOL THAT IS SOOO MACY AND WES in The Truth About Forever! Plus remember they ate waffles? Hehe this book is soo cool! It's like another story parallel to the another story :D and they come in contact at times... LOL World of Waffles... cheers! xP (I have to eat there sometime!)Don't judge... just listen. Or read it. :D
—Waffle...♥
This book amazed me by how the author can turn a cheesy story into one that I cannot stop reading. I especially enjoyed its romance, which is slowly presented but so sweet. Friendship-toward-love relationship is the type I like. Under normal circumstances, I hate to read or watch movies about men and women who only know each other for a short couple of hours but start to make out, claiming they are deeply in love...For me, friendship is like the basic and primal level of romance. Skipping it to the next level is neither wise nor romantic. So I applaud the author for writing about Annable and Owen's love after being real good friend first. I also enjoy the family love in the book a lot. Although I don't seem to understand the true meaning behind that little bicycle story, I was deeply touched by Witney's diary about that incident, and how she feels about her love to her sisters(Witney's writing is so beautiful. It actually made me want to be a character under the author's pen so that I can write good essays in my English 1B class...)However, I don't quite like the last one hundred pages where Anabbel doesn't want to clarify the misunderstanding, and she drifts apart from Owen because of her secrets. Her leaving Owen in the club alone and not talking to him for a long time puzzled me. Maybe she's way too sentimental than I am so I couldn't understand what's in her head to make those stupic decisions...Anyways, I enjoy very much of the plot and the writing style of this book, kinda suspense and sweet for the most part. It's the first book of my record that give me a sense of keeping reading and not wanting to put it down. So, No Doubt! It's a Five Star book!!
—Sunny Stone
THIS, This my friends... this is the book that started it all. Twilight may have first introduced me to the world of YA Books - Yes, Twilight was the first book I ever read, and double Yes, I liked it. And no, you are not allowed to judge me - but THIS, this book was the one that sealed the deal. This book got me forever hooked on YA Contemporary books, it set standards and it awoke things in me that I was trying really hard to forget and ignore and others that were waiting to be discovered: like my love for books.This book is a treasure. It teaches you that you have a choice, that you always have a choice. You can either go with it... Or not. That you shouldn't judge! (too much, at least). That you should learn how to keep quiet some times and actually listen. That, as a matter of fact, you can listen to the quiet, and that you can be amazed of what it has to say. AMAZED I TELL YOU! This was going to be just a mini review saying that this book started it all but I kinda kept going... if it wasn't already obvious, I am very passionate about this book. And you know what's even more amazing? my stupidity for letting a certain friend borrow it even though I know she isn't the most trustworthy person, and for acting surprised when she returned it stained on lots of pages and with the cover ruined because she spilled a drink over it. asdfghjkl.Favorite quote from this book and of all times:“There comes a time when the world gets quiet and the only thing left is your own heart. So you'd better learn the sound of it. Otherwise you'll never understand what it's saying.”
—Jude
