fairy skeletons.: Book Review: Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

Pic from animegirlsbookshelf.blogspot.com

Last year, Annabel was “the girl who has everything”—at least that’s the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf’s Department Store. This year, she’s the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong. Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen’s help,maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.

--From Sarah Dessen's website

Okay, so this is actually my first taste of Sarah Dessen. I know, right? It's like, YOU HAVEN'T READ ANY SARAH DESSEN?! Well, yeah, okay? I have to confess, I was uninterested until now because it seemed like shallow chick lit to me.

Sadly for me, it WASN'T. So now I have to start tearing my hair out over not reading it all these years...

I really liked Annabel. Her inner struggles were just so well portrayed, and it made me want to just hug her and say, "It's going to be okay." 

Her family was really lovable, too... Whitney and Kirsten eventually getting along, Annabel's fragile-looking but resilient mom, her dad...

I know this is waaay too many paragraph breaks, but I just want to say... I loved this book. Will begin devouring other books by Sarah Dessen. But will not stoop to fangirl status. Ever.