Just Listen

Sarah Dessen has become a well-known young adult novelist. Since 1996 she has written twelve novels and one novella. Dessen writes stories mostly focused on some kind of trauma in a young girl’s life and how this character changes and evolves as a result of the conflict set in play. Just Listen, which was published in 2006 and was Dessen’s seventh book to be published, is no different. The story line follows a seventeen year old girl named Annabel Greene who is the “it” girl at her school and seemingly has it all; popularity, friends, and a booming modeling job. However, Annabel’s reality could not be further from this perceived perfection.

Just Listen begins at the beginning of a new school year in-which we quickly learn that Annabel is no longer welcomed in her group of friends. Sophia, her best friend for four years shows up at her car door and mouths off some strong language about Annabel. Emily, another friend in their group is with Sophia, clearly choosing her side instead. It is obvious something has happened between the two, but it takes a while in the story before we are given the reason for the strained relationship. She is alone and left to sit outside without any friends to talk to at lunch. The only person remotely close to her outside is a boy named Owen Armstrong who is engrossed in his music and does not pay any attention to her. To complicate matters her older sister Whitney is living at home while she receives treatments for her eating disorder all while Annabel’s mom is obsessed with pushing Annabel into modeling. Each of Annabel’s sisters has modeled and it is something that seems to be a dream of their moms rather than theirs.

As the story progresses we see Annabel begin to connect to Owen through the music he listens to. It takes a while, but she begins to open up to him and her to him. The two form an unlikely friendship that leads into a romance between the two. After an incident in which Emily, Annabel’s old friend, is raped by Will Cash, Sophia’s boyfriend, we learn the real reason for Annabel’s ostracization from her group of friends. Like Emily, Annabel was raped by Will. However, Sophia believes that Annabel hooked-up with her boyfriend and not that he raped her. Annabel keeps the rape to herself throughout most of the story. Like our young character in Speak, Annabel does not know exactly how to handle the situation. Emily on the other hand takes matters to the police, and Will ends up in court. When this happens Annabel finally comes out about what happened to her and speaks at his trial against him. Because of their testimony’s Will is put in jail. He has apparently done this to a few other girls.

This book deals with a very important issue faced by untold numbers of adolescents today. Rape is a topic no one likes to talk about, but it is something that if not discussed could cause great damage to young people in society. This issue needs to be addressed and books like Just Listen and the one we read in class, Speak, need to be available for teens who might face the same situation but not know how to handle what has happened to them. They need to see through characters such as Annabel that being silent is not the answer, speaking out against their predators is the only way to stop that person and hopefully help future victims. With the content being rape and covering some strong relationship issues between friends, families and even boyfriend/girlfriends Just Listen was deemed “too intense for teens” by the Hillsborough County school system in Florida (Doyle 3).

While Just Listen was only banned by the one county in Florida it has received some concern from others; however, it has not made it on a banned list since 2007. This story deals with the struggles of preconceived appearance in people. Annabel was believed to have the ideal life from the outside. Yet, her life was falling apart all around her. On her website Sarah Dessen discusses what prompted her to write this book. She explains that it stemmed from her flipping through a High School yearbook and seeing a “shot of three beautiful girls, obviously sisters, all blonde, posing together by a pool, and even at first glance all [she] could think was that they looked like the kind of girls who had everything” (Dessen). From there she began to form the story of Annabel. The thought that we judge people by what we see without knowing the situations in their lives is so relevant in society today. Between Facebook, Instagram, Snap Chat, and whatever else you want to name our lives are all played out in front of the world in idyllic fashion. The heart of the issue is that most of the posts are not real. Young teens compete to have that perfect picture that will gain them the most attention. They want their life to seem so much better than everyone else around them and Dessen captures this issue by tackling the reality of a teen who otherwise seems to have it all together.

Throughout the book we get a sense that teens are expected to put on a show for everyone around them. Annabel herself does not tell anyone what has happened to her because at home her family is facing other issues with her older sister and at school she is seen as the one who was in the wrong for actions outside of her control. For Annabel hiding what has happened to her seems to be the only option she is left with. No one stops to ask Annabel what has happened to her, no one seems to see the transformation that has taken place with her. This theme in the books is one that plays out in society all too often. A teen becomes withdrawn and many blame it on their age, the hormones, new pressures; however, if you do not ask the teen what is happening with them to cause this transformation you cannot know for sure it is as simple as the normal stereotype.

With this book being challenged it begs the question why would you not want your child to read about these issues and become aware that someone around them, if not they themselves, might be facing these kinds of issues? As a whole, why has society chosen to keep these types of works out of the libraries and off the bookstore shelves? Teens every day and all around the world are faced with the types of issues discussed in Just Listen yet it was challenged for being “too intense”. Rape is a real issue. Many teens know of someone who has been in this situation and because of this book they might be empowered to help them speak out about it. Yet, this book is viewed as too intense. There is a problem greater than censorship when you try to ban books that speak out about the unwanted issues in life. The greater problem is that these situations go un-talked about and unnoticed when not mentioned. That should be the real concern for parents and other authority figures. Not that a book addresses the tough problems faced by teens, but if they do not. Books are a source of information for many young adolescents. Through a fantasy world they are able to read about strong situations that happen in life and are empowered with knowledge about how to handle these situations should they ever arise. If books like Just Listen are taken off the shelves many young adolescence are sent out into the world without any real practical tools for how to address hard times. Sure they are supposed to come to the adults in their lives when these situations happen, but all too often they do not and the books that address the big issues are the ones that just might have the answers they are searching for.

Works Cited

Doyle, Robert P. “Books Challenged or Banned in 2007-2008.” American Library Association, Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.

“Just Listen.” Sarah Dessen RSS. Web. 3 Mar. 2016

Dessen, Sarah. Just Listen. New York: Viking Children’s, 2006. Print.