Just Listen

Full review on Reader's Dialogue: readersdialogue.blogspot.com/2013/08/just-listen.html

It's obvious from almost the very beginning that Annabel experienced something very traumatic, but it's not revealed until a ways into the book. Which only makes it scarier, the way Annabel hears a nameless voice whispering something that should be reassuring but instead sends shivers down your spine from the terror it evokes in Annabel. And that's kind of the whole point of the book - the way Annabel doesn't allow herself to acknowledge anything out of the normal, the way she pushes everything deep down inside herself, refuses to talk about it, definitely not with anyone else but not even with herself. Owen, with his forthright honesty cultivated both by his Anger Management and his really endearing family, eases her into opening up by discussing their very different tastes in music (and come on, who actually likes the kind of music Owen likes?) in a completely confrontational but also safe way.

But as happens in real life, which Sarah Dessen always gets so exactly, Annabel isn't miraculously cured because of Owen. She has to face things herself, and she doesn't - and so she loses everything all over again. I felt like screaming at her as she made the dumbest decision again and again simply because she feared confrontation and jumped to conclusions about what other people were thinking. I also teared up a bit, because to a lesser extent I do the same thing. That's another great thing about Sarah Dessen's books - you always find something to relate to in every single book.

But the way Annabel finally takes a deep breath and gets the courage to face every horrible terrible thing that's happening in her life - that's beautiful. Because it takes such tremendous strength to stop ruining your life by hiding behind a facade of "everything is just fine." We know all along that Annabel is strong, but she proves it even more when she is partly the catalyst for her family's change and when she takes her life back in her own hands. When she repeats Owen's own words back to him, it becomes obvious that not only did Owen help her, she helps him, and that's just so perfect.

Posted Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Actual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I can still remember the first time I read this book, I had just gotten a Kindle for my birthday in 2009 and it was one of the first books I purchased. I remember I chose this book because Annabel’s plight was similar to the darkness in my own life and finding characters who you are so readily able to identify with is a truly special occurrence. An occurrence which deserves celebration through exploring their tragedy and strength with them in the hopes of strengthening your own resolve…and that is what I did.

Annabel herself is a believable character; she is flawed and struggles with coming to terms with not only with what happened to her, but with who she is as an individual in light of it. The teenage years are a trying time on their own without the loss of innocence through true pain and tragedy in addition to what feels like endless suffering at the hands of your peers who don’t truly understand what happened or what they think they saw. This is a part of our culture which is so utterly astounding in regards to rape, the idea of blaming the victim or victim bashing. Annabel is not only blamed by her friends, but in some ways she blames herself for what happened. When you are made to feel so often that it was your fault that something happened, then you eventually begin to believe it. I also reveled the fact that Annabel was able to find support in Owen, a kindred spirit in that he is flawed and has his own issues to come to terms with. I felt that this gave an honesty to the entire novel because that is what any person who has experienced a trauma such as this needs, a person to be there for them even if they are someone just as broken. They can share their pain, their struggles, and eventually they can find their own form of acceptance and happiness in light of the darkened past.

A quote that sums up this book very well is:

Because that is what happens when you try to run from the past. It doesn't just catch up: it overtakes, blotting out the future, the landscape, the very sky, until there is no path left except that which leads through it, the only one that can ever get you home.

You try so hard and for so long to just forget about your own traumas and your own pain, eventually it just consumes you until their is nothing left but to accept it and slowly work towards overcoming it. This is one of the hardest ideas to accept, the idea that you have to accept and move past the pain rather than attempting to ignore it. Some traumas and pains are just too great for this to be easily accepted at first and for some takes many years. This book helped me to affirm my own understanding and accept the trauma which had happened to me and learn to move past it, to still have a life that I wanted free of that pain. It doesn't mean the pain is gone, it doesn't mean the trauma doesn't remain…but, you feel it a little less each day and eventually it no longer plagues your every thought, your every action. I recommend that anyone regardless of whether you are a teen, young adult, or adult should read this book enhancing your own inner strength against your own pains by learning how to accept it and understand how to move past it.

Originally posted on my Tumblr.