Gateway Readers' Award Nominees

The Blogs: 2008-09

Just Listen

by Sarah Dessen 

Horn Book (May/June, 2006)

Annabel is nice. She is nice enough to take local modeling jobs to make her mother happy, watch the History Channel with her father when no one else will, and go out of her way to befriend others. She's so nice that when her own problems -- a falling-out with self-absorbed best friend Sophie and the subsequent social shunning -- threaten to overwhelm her, she says nothing at all. It wouldn't be nice to draw attention away from more important things, like her sister's silent struggle with anorexia. The problem with nice, though, in the words of anger-management-alum and alternative-music-nut Owen (the only classmate still speaking to Annabel), is that "it usually involves not telling the truth." As her relationship with Owen deepens, Annabel is inspired to speak, to argue, and finally to reveal the truth about the sexual assault that ended her friendship with Sophie. In delicate, unassuming prose, naturally flowing dialogue, and a complex, credible plot, Dessen portrays Annabel's socially endorsed self-repression with depth and intensity. The romance with Owen, which forms the core of the story, is everything a romance should be -- challenging, heartfelt, and most of all organic. In the end, families are healed, friendships are resurrected, and love -- in all its unexpected incarnations -- triumphs.

Booklist (March 15, 2006 (Vol. 102, No. 14))

After being caught with her best friend's Sophie's boyfriend at a summer party, Annabel Greene is starting her junior year alone and ostracized. But what appeared to be infidelity was really attempted rape. Fans of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak (1999) will find obvious parallels here, including the play on the title, but Dessen spins her own quality tale of a young girl finding her voice, and finding an audience. Annabel's troubles are exacerbated by her family's refusal to acknowledge its problems: middle sister Whitney's severe anorexia or the three sisters'waning interest in modeling. A budding friendship with classmate Owen, a dj at the community radio station who is never without music to drown out the silence, helps Annabel listen to her own heart and risk speaking out honestly. Characterization and dialogue are expertly done, and Owen's anger-management advice and efforts to broaden Annabel's music tastes ("Don't think, or judge. Just listen") strengthen the theme of the story: honesty. Teen girls who meet Dessen for the first time here will be looking for her backlist.

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