Sarah Dessen is well-known for her brilliant insight into the mind of the teenage girl. If you are one and have ever had a problem chances are Dessen has covered it in one of her novels. All of my girl friends had read at least one of her books and raved about it so I read one too. I went to my local bookstore and picked up Just Listen. I loved it. I've only read it about three times in the couple of years I've had it but it's got so much going on that I don't feel like I need to re-read it over and over again for it to really mean something to me.
Just Listen
Annabel only seems to have it all. She is a model for a local department store, her two beautiful older sisters are models, and their mother is utterly supportive, and in some cases more passionate about, Annabel's modeling career. But Annabel feels like she has nothing.
She had a huge fight with her former best friend Sophie over Sophie's on-again off-again boyfriend, now Sophie spends her time torturing Annabel and spreading rumors about her at school.
Annabel's older sister is discovered to be anorexic because she was striving to be the perfect model, so she leaves New York to live at home.
Annabel also doesn't have the passion for walking the catwalk that her mother does, it may not be what she wants to do, but how can she break out of the mold?
Then, she meets Owen Armstrong, an oddball and former delinquent obsessed with music; he may be just what Annabel needs to overcome the turmoil inside herself. Their friendship gives her the strength to confront the issues over what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.
The Truth About Forever
Macy is only sixteen when she experiences a most devastating loss: the sudden death of her beloved father. This sets up her summer as one of the worst in history. Besides grieving she must deal with SAT prep, her terribly mind-numbing job at the library, and to top it all off her boyfriend will be out of town.
This all changes when Macy helps her mother at an open house event. Macy meets the wacky catering staff of Wish Catering. Before long she is swept up into their energetic and close-knit circle of people. There she meets Wes, the artistic and good looking guy who understands what Macy is going through.
But Macy still has many obstacles to overcome: her mother's disapproval of the tattooed Wes, her jerk of a boyfriend Jason, and of course the anger, grief, and guilt that comes with a death of a close family member.
Sarah Dessen's characters all have an obstacle that is keeping them from moving forward, some internal struggle that is obsessed over. As any teenage girl will understand, sometimes the most difficult challenges faced are the ones created by ourselves.
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