Just Listen

            In the book Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, is about this girl name Annabel she is a model but she doesn’t want to be a model her mom wants her to be a model. Annabel is us to being ignored, since she has two older sisters, Whitney her second older sister has eating disorders and mostly gets all the attention from her parents. Her only friend Sophie left her, and now Annabel has no friends, but then she met the Owen who she never thought she would be friends with. Owen makes her happy, and now she is someone she isn’t invisible. The main idea in the book is that you shouldn’t be afraid to tell the truth and when you do you feel better, like Annabel is afraid to tell the truth to her mom, that she doesn’t want to be a model, and she has to do something that she doesn’t want to do she doesn’t tell the truth she is suffering.

            Annabel told Owen about her what happened between Sophie and her, and when she did she felt so much better, she was honest with him. When Annabel’s mother asked her about school, Annabel didn’t want to say that she has no friends (then Owen and her weren’t friends) and Sophie calls her a whore, and she just hates school. Instead she told her mother something that happened last year ago, her mother doesn’t even know anything about her school life. “The real truth, I realized as the day wore on, was that even though I didn’t hardly knew Owen, I’d actually been more honest with him than anyone else in a long time.” This quote is means that Annabel hadn’t been honest with anyone is a long time, and when she started to be honest with Owen she started to feel better, because she was holding in a lot that she didn’t want to tell her parents because she didn’t want to add more trouble. Also this quote is explaining is that you don’t have to be honest with a person that you know very well, you can be honest with anyone. When you feel comfortable with person the truth just comes out, you don’t have to worry.

            When Annabel told Owen about her modeling and that she doesn’t like it and wants to quit, but she can’t tell her mom she said that is felt good letting this out. “When I first walked away from Owen, I felt relieved.” She felt relieved because she said the truth, she was honest and she was starting to express herself and let her feelings out to Owen and she started to feel relieve. She really never had anyone she say the truth to, but when she got Owen has a friend she trusted him and said the truth.

            When Annabel told Owen that she would listen to his show, she did but she wasn’t telling him the truth about what she really thought about it. She was saying “place holders” like interesting; she wasn’t saying that what she actually felt about it.

“Right you’re nice.” Owen said

“What’s wrong with nice.” Annabel said

“Nothing, except it usually involves not telling the truth.” Owen said

Annabel wasn’t saying that she really didn’t like his show; she was being “nice” and being when she was trying to be nice and try not to hurt Owen’s feelings, but while she was trying to not hurt Owen’s feeling she was lying. Like when she was trying not to add trouble to their parents, but she was also lying, she doesn’t want to hurt anyone so she lies, she should say the truth in a nice way. When she mom asked her about school, she could’ve said that that she doesn’t like school since Sophie doesn’t talk with me, but it is okay you don’t have to worry about me. There she would’ve been telling the truth, and her mom wouldn’t worry too much.

            Annabel holds too much in, and when she started to let things out, she started to feel better, because telling the truth is the best thing to do. I think that soon Annabel will tell her mom that she doesn’t want to model anymore, also that she is going to start to fall in love with Owen because she feels really comfortably with him and starts to tell him a lot that she hadn’t tell. The main idea connects with the real world, because there is someone out there that you can feel comfortable, cause there is a lot of people that lie, and this theme is really important because when people lie its bad also you can be hurting someone.  I learned that telling the truth will make me feel better and is the best thing you can do.