Neither author takes the easy plotting out of black-and-white villain-initiated treachery. As I read this book, I began to mentally catalog the similarities between these two authors Both write quiet, character-driven novels, often centering them around women who have recently suffered difficult personal losses. Like Carla Kelly, Dessen writes sad stories with happy endings. But most of all because she knows Total Honesty and Big Secrets are an impossible combination. Because Annabel is the nice girl, she’s used to smoothing everything over with white lies and equivocation. Owen introduces Annabel to music and his own personal philosophy of complete honesty at all times, both of which make Annabel uneasy. He even has his own radio show – Anger Management – on at 7 AM on Sundays on the community radio station. He’s constantly searching for new stuff, trying to find something a little more edgy and experimental, searching for enlightenment in song. Any kind of music – punk, thrash, ska, chant, techno, big band, jazz, hip hop – he’s got some of all of it. Yes, he’s been in trouble in the past, but with court-mandated therapy, he’s learning to control his reactions. Stripped of her place in the lunchtime hierarchy, Annabel takes a chance and sits between Clarke, the best friend she once dumped for Sophie, and Owen Armstrong, the “Angriest Boy in School.” Owen is significantly more receptive than Clarke and though he initially ignores her, the two eventually begin to talk and Annabel finds out there’s a lot more to Owen than just anger. What she’s left with is an ugly secret and no one to tell it to. Annabel’s four-year friendship with Sophie, a manipulative but socially powerful girl, imploded, and with it went her status at Lakeview High. Then something went terribly wrong one night at the end of the school year, and she didn’t have much of anything left. She was popular she had a satisfactory modeling career, a good family, and a decent social life.
You just have to look for them.Īnnabel Greene was the girl who had it all. And reading a Dessen book always restores my faith that there are indeed well-written, character-driven novels out there. Sometimes you have to have something on stand-by – a sure thing waiting in the wings for when you hit that inevitable dry spell. Because I know I can count on Sarah Dessen, I pre-ordered Just Listen back in the winter when it first became available on Amazon.
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