Even without the horrific rape and the falling out with Sophie, Annabel would be at a difficult juncture in her life in Just Listen. After all she's a teenager and undergoing a lot of change—she doesn't know what she wants to do in life and is considering quitting modeling, something she's done since she was a baby. She also has a hard time asserting herself, especially as the youngest of three sisters.
Annabel is not sure where she fits into the grand scheme of things, and it is only when she starts hanging out with Owen that she begins expressing her own opinions and becoming confident in what she believes and thinks.
Questions About Identity
- Why is it so hard for Annabel to express her real opinion about things at the beginning of the book? How does this change?
- How does quitting modeling change the lives of all the Greene sisters?
- Does Owen's reputation accurately represent who he really is? Why or why not?
Chew on This
In the beginning Annabel is too afraid to tell anyone what she thinks, but by the end she's definitely come into her own.
Annabel assumes that both of her sisters have a strong sense of their place in the family and that she's the one on the fringe, but she comes to realize that they're all uncertain and trying to carve out a place for themselves.