The Book Addict Reviews: Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Social Issue, Music
Order Online: Amazon.com
Author Info: Website | Goodreads
Rating: 4 stars
Borrowed from library.

In A Nutshell:
So many of the books I have read recently have drawn on the importance of music to teens--how it is a way to express themselves, to cope with the events going on in their lives, a passion that brings them back from dark and depressing places.  In some ways, I worried that Just Listen would not have anything new to bring to my experience.  But Just Listen is not like any of the other books related to music that I have read.  My only regret is that I put it off so long.

Review:
Annabel's life looks perfect from the outside.  She models and has become an inspiration to younger girls.  She lives in a glass house where people passing by have the opportunity to see a picturesque view a modern family eating dinner or seating together in the living room.  With so much of her life open to the world, its easy to think that she does not have any secrets.  That her life is everything that can be seen from the outside.

But Annabel has secrets that she keeps in an effort to keep the peace in her house.  She cannot bear to tell her mother for fear that her mother will have another breakdown.  She cannot bear to tell her sisters because they are both dealing with their own serious problems.  She cannot tell her friends because many of them abandoned her after an episode at a party.

She is alone in her struggles until she meets Owen.  Owen is not the typical YA hero.  He is big and a little clumsy.  He has been arrested and had to undergo an anger management course.  At first Annabel is a little intimidated by Owen, then Annabel was awed by Owen's complete honesty, then Annabel was a little scared of Owen because he saw through her more than anyone.

As much as I loved the story and the characters, I was a little underwhelmed with the audiobook.  The narrator did try really hard to use different voices for different characters but some of the voices came out sounding slower and not at all the way I thought the characters would have sounded if I had been reading the book.  I do not recommend this narrator, but the story itself was wonderful.      

Recommendations:
Sarah Dessen is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors, which you could probably tell from the reviews I have done already This Lullaby and What Happened to Goodbye.  I want to read all of her books and I think my next one will be: