Shelly's Book Blog

Just Listen, a YA novel by Sarah Dessen, reminded me of Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, but the story is different enough that I think both are well worth reading.
Annabel Greene, the heroine of Just Listen, is a teen who has been modeling for many years, long enough to have grown weary of it. However, she cannot bring herself to tell her mother, who clearly loves being involved with the modeling world. Annabel has trouble talking about other important issues in her life as well, but when she meets Owen, a loner at school who loves music and even has his own radio show, it seems as though things might change.
Dessen deftly balances several plot threads in this book, winding them together to create a very readable, though-provoking text.