Author: Sarah Dessen
This book is about a 17 year old girl, Annabel, who everyone thinks has everything she'd ever want and that everything involving her life is perfect. Little does everyone else know that her public life is just a bunch of lies developed by Annabel to shield every ones feelings from the truth. In the last year she had lost all her friends because of an 'incident' at a party, that no one really knows what happened, a failing modelling career and a family living a life of lies around her older sisters eating disorder. All this stress begins to take a toll on Annabel, until she meets the new kid at school, Owen. No one at Annabel's school talks to own because he has a major anger management problem, so Annabel is his only friend. Owen also deals with all his anger and problems by listening to music constantly and is a music guru. With Owen's help Annabel learns to stop hiding the truth for the sake of other people's feelings, and to just tell the truth.
"If at first I'd doubted it, I don't now: Owen was always this honest. Ask a question, you got a honest answer.
'Do you ever lie to save some one's feelings?' I finally asked him one day, just after he told me that while my new hair cut looked fine, he preferred it longer. 'Like at all?'
'You ask me what I think, I'll tell you the honest truth. Why ask me, if you don't want me to be honest?'
'Don't you ever think to yourself, maybe I shouldn't say this? Maybe it's not the right thing to do?' As i said this he gave me a doubtful look and popped a pretzel in his mouth.
He considered this for a second. 'No,' he said finally. ' I told you. I don't like liars."
'It's not lieing it's just not telling.'
'You're saying there's a difference?'
'There is,' I said. ' One is actively deceiving. The other is just not saying something out loud.'
'Yes, but' he replied, pulling out another pretzel. 'you are still participating in a deception. expect it's to yourself. Right?'
I just looked at him unable to say anything else.
The next day at lunch, Owen put his backpack on the wall between us, unzipped it, and pulled out a stack of Cds. ' Here,' he said pushing then toward me. 'For you.'
To Owen a few Cds was 10 or 11. Each CD had a neatly printed list of songs and artist on them, accept one. This one CD was blank except the words JUST LISTEN.
Instantly, I was suspicious. ' What is this?' I asked him.
'Just listen to it last, all the other Cds are set lists, set concepts. An education, if you will. You should listen to them first. And then when you've done that, and you think you're ready, really ready, put that one on. It's a bit more........out there. You might totally hate it,' he admitted. 'Or not. it might be the answer to all of life's questions. That's the beauty of it. You know? Don't judge, jump to conclusions or over think. Just listen and tell me the truth of what you were feeling and thinking while just listening.'
'Okay.' I answered hesitantly. I would have never been able to tell him so, but Owen inspired me. the little white lies I told on a daily basis, the things i kept in, each time i was not totally honest---I was aware of everyone now. i also cognizant of how good it felt to actually be able to say what i thought to someone. Even if it was just about music. Or not"
What I liked about this scene: I liked this scene out of "Just Listen" because I like the way Owen thinks. All the little white lies people tell everyday are still lies no matter how small, and I like the idea of always telling the truth no matter what. I think it would be alot less stressful and you'd feel more relived all the time because you are not cooping things up inside. I also liked this scene because I can relate to the way Annabel was feeling about Owen. I would admire someone who always told the truth no matter what the situation too.
