I didn't think I could read this so fast, considering my hectic schedule lately, but I just couldn't put it down. Just Listen more than a YA book, is a book that makes you think on many things: family relationships, honesty vs white lies, keeping it all hidden or waving it in the open... An endless array of issues that affect more or less all families. And while we all know more or less that keeping everything under a lid is not a good policy, even if it takes the heroine a while to realise this, it's the reason she did it in the first place that rocked my world: She didn't want to upset her mother. The mother who had more or less collapsed at some point of her life. And while it's humane, and not unheard of, and it happens, it made me think that children are -most times- not mature enough to handle a vulnerable/collapsed parent; a parent who needs nurturing instead of being the one who nurtures. And as a young mother, I suddenly feel that responsibility so very keanly and hope I'll always have the strength to keep acting like the adult, responsible one.

Personal musings aside, Just Listen was full of messages but never boring, or preaching. It was fluid, beautiful, well paced, interesting and handled the transitions between the past and present scenes in an excellent, non-confusing way. I loved Dessen's writing and her characters, main and secondary, with their flaws and quirks, and I'm looking forward to reading more of her books.