casperpumpkin's profile picture

casperpumpkin 's review for:

Just Listen by Sarah Dessen
4.0

Though I liked "This Lullaby" by Sarah Dessen better, this book does have some redeeming qualities.

This is about a girl who is dealing with all of the typical teenage problems (loss of best friend, sexual assault, sister with eating disorder, emotionally unstable mother, etc.) The book starts out slow and is predictable for about the first 50 pages.

However, then Sarah Dessen's charm kicks in. Enter: the boy music snob we've all learned to love, a strong moral on how best to deal with pent up feelings, a lot of anger management terminology, and a love-it-or-hate it soundtrack. Voila, now you have a "good read."

My favorite parts are the scenes with Owen (music snob), Annabel (emotional wreck) and Owen's little sister (model wannabe, bubble gum pop girl with lots of spunk.) Owen's use of terms such as "placecard", "R & R", and "I-lang" are wonderfully funny/sarcastic.

(placecard = words like fine, thing, stuff)
(r & r = rephrase and redirect = rephrasing an insult and redirecting it to what you're really angry about. Example: "Don't be a label whore." R&R: "What I meant to say, is that your focus on labels and material goods troubles me.")
(I-lang = inflammatory language)