Winter's calling

Photo courtesy: Me!

While still water reflects the grey expanse above,

And all but the autumn’s leaves have fallen,

when the hibiscus has bled its colour out,

you know winter has found its calling.

"Don't think or judge, just listen"

                                                                                       -Sarah Dessen, Just Listen

Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen

Yellow guys! A couple of weeks back, I read a book called Just Listen, by Sarah Dessen ( it rhymes, I know!) and I assure you, it is one of those life-changing books. 

The plot circles around Annabel Greene, a 16-year-old model or has everything - model looks, a great social life, a popular best friend, clothes, a house with a glass facade. Or rather had everything. Last summer, she had shunned everyone, and as a new school year starts, she is ostracized by the entire school. Her anorexic sister, Whitney, is sinking the whole family into depression and the not-so-cold war between Whitney and another sister, Kirsten, weakens the fragile bonds between the family. Soon, she meets Owen (while throwing up), an intense, music-obsessed classmate who listens to the bizarre music: Mayan chants, cricket sounds and so much more. Back from Anger Management classes, Owen is determined to tell the truth and introduces Annabel to a new world of music, introducing music as something so powerful that it can being back a million memories as if music is nothing but frozen time. Most importantly, he teaches Annabel to be true - both to herself and the world and to swim upwards from her sea of 'I'm fine' lies. The rest of the plot narrates why Annabel's life is so, and how everything is as not as it seems, that even though glass facades can be beautiful, it mustn't be forgotten that they are fragile too.

My most favourite character in this book was Whitney Greene, for her thoughts and words were very similar to mine, and would be if I were in her shoes. Whitney's the most beautiful of the three Greene sisters, and also the most broken. At one point, when Annabel sees Whitney purging in secret after being force-fed, Whitney's shoulder's are described as being thin, angular and bird-like. However normal the description seemed, comparing Whitney's bony shoulder to a bird did affected me viscerally - creating a hollowness within me that seemed wholly irreparable for I often associate birds with freedom. For these reasons and a million inexpressible more, I connected with Whitney the most.