Young Adult Lit; Coming-of-Age; Family Drama
Young Adult Literature
Just Listen may be a book with some pretty hefty themes—rape, eating disorders, and depression, to name a few—but it's definitely meant for a teenage audience. After all, this isn't the kind of book that pretends adolescents don't have real and painful problems to deal with. It addresses these difficult issues that plague Annabel and her family as she's growing up, and shows the reader that young people have problems too. In fact, young people have a lot of problems, and part of growing up is coming to terms with and overcoming your personal issues.
Coming of Age
No one ever said that growing up was easy (and if they did, they lied). Annabel Greene is a young girl who feels pretty lost when the novel opens up. She's been raped, her family is in tumult, and her best friend isn't even talking to her—in short, she feels super isolated.
Over the course of the book though, Annabel works through her pain and grief and begins to feel more confident. She actually grows up and starts making decisions for herself—and being more comfortable with asserting those decisions. Maybe some terrible things happened to her, but Annabel makes the best out of it and it helps her to grow into a wiser young adult.
Family Drama
The Greene family may look perfect from the outside, but there's a lot of trouble brewing if you take a closer look. Annabel has her own issues (which she doesn't want to tell anyone), Whitney is in treatment for an eating disorder, and the entire family is dealing with their unspoken fear that Mrs. Greene will become depressed again. As the book progresses, the members of the Greene family have to overcome their issues and figure out a way to support each other instead of fighting against each other.