Review: Just Listen

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

A Review

I have recently been trying to read Outlander by Diana Gabaldon but it has been making me feel pretty slumpy. 'Just Listen' by Sarah Dessen had been sitting on myself for probably a year and I had heard good things about it so I figured what the heck? Might as well read it. 

This book is about a teenager named Annabel who has a secret. Something happened last summer that Annabel refuses to talk about. The same night that she lost her best friend. Annabel is alone and isolated when she meets a hard core music lover named Owen and develops a friendship with him. During the course of the book Annabel struggles with her sisters anorexia, her mothers depression, love, friendships, and her inability to tell the truth. 

I thought that this book was a extremely generic and typical YA contemporary read with flat characters. I felt that there was nothing really interesting or different about it and to be honest it reminded me a lot of 'Since You've Been Gone' by Morgan Matson. I feel this way because both books had very similar characters and events. For example, Annabel really reminded me of Emily and the plot was set up very much in the same way. Both stories have a falling out with two best friends in which one of the friends meets a new guy who helps her through her issues. 

I'm not sure why I continue to read these YA contemporaries if it is more than likely I will not enjoy them. I guess I wanted to give this book a shot because I can remember absolutely loving one of Dessen's other books, 'Along for the Ride'. Maybe I should just only read contemporary if it is written by Stephanie Perkins and then I wont have to write anymore negative reviews. :-)

"Silence is so freaking loud." 

-Sarah Dessen 'Just Listen'

Have a great day bookworms!