Thalia @ Pictures in the Words

A long time ago, when I first started reading Dessen, someone (I don’t remember who) told me that because of my “content” parameters, I shouldn’t read Just Listen. Whoever it was, I listened to them and blacklisted this book for the longest time. But I heard so many good things about it, and considering the other Dessen books I read were just fine in my book, I decided to give this one a shot when I found it at Goodwill.This is easily the best Dessen book I’ve read so far, and I’m starting to get familiar with her writing and her style. It’s homey and cozy to me now and I generally like her stuff. But this one was just…amazing. I really loved it and it was the first time in awhile where I could honestly say that Dessen had written a truly great book–most of her stuff I give four stars or lower (only one other has made the five star rank) because there’s always just something off. I loved the story and Annabel’s character just made perfect sense to me. There were little things that I adored, and Owen has been Dessen’s best main character thus far (maybe in a tie with Nate from Lock and Key). And although I can’t put my finger on exactly why I loved this book so much, it was still priceless to me. It had flaws that I hadn’t seen in other Dessen books, but they were forgivable. If you’re just tuning in to Dessen’s books, you should definitely start with this one.Read more?http://thaliasbooks.tumblr.com/post/54954217057/just-listen-review