Last year, Annabel was "the girl who has everything"—at least that's the part she played in the television commercial for Kopf's Department Store. This year, she's the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean-but-exciting Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong. Tall, dark, and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen's help,maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.
Let me just start by saying this was my first Sarah Dessen novel. I was expecting the classic girl-meets-boy and they fall in love blah, blah, blah. Everyone hopped on the Dessen train a while ago and I've always held back because I don't usually enjoy the kind of books that EVERYONE has read. But while in the library I spotted this one and it just called to me. (The summary mentioned anorexia, and I love reading books about real problems--way better than any dystopian any day)
This book was so good it made my cry. Now for movies, tv shows, etc. that's not exactly a feat. But books rarely make me cry because they are so good! (I keep using good and not great because this book was predictable and some of the literary styles were not my cup of tea, but it was still worth reading)
The best part about this book is how flawed the main character is. Annabel starts off as a whiny, spoiled teen and evolves into a real person with issues. Half of the time I was so angry with her, after I figured out what happened at 'the party', and the other half I was rooting for her and Whitney. I didn't really care about Annabel and Owen's relationship, but that's probably just me (I mean, it was destined to happen...obviously).
Whitney and Annabel's relationship to me was the most interesting because it was the most real. I mean you could hear Whitney screaming for help from her sister, but Annabel was too weak to give any. I didn't quite understand the purpose of the bike story but I don't think that played too much of a role in the book (they just brought it up a LOT). In the end I'm glad things were resolved and all ends were tied up--that's how these books are supposed to end so that was satisfying.
On another note, Dessen gets the award for having the longest running metaphor throughout a book: the glass house. Its meaning was blatantly stated many times in the reading, so as not to miss it--if that was even possible. It didn't really further the story. It was just like, 'stuff isn't always what it seems...' It didn't go much deeper than that.
Ironically, the only thing I really disliked about this book was the cover. Some girl is standing with an MP3 player in front of a white background and it says Just Listen. Not captivating at all. I would have never picked this up in a bookstore. Unless it was an audiobook, I don't know if I could resist the irony :)
But cover aside, this is a moving read. I believe everyone can get something out of it if they look deep enough into themselves. 4 stars!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment