Who is the narrator, can she or he read minds, and, more importantly, can we trust her or him?
First Person (Central Narrator)
The entirety of Just Listen is told from the perspective of Annabel Greene, teen model and wallflower. Annabel is definitely the kind of girl who observes more than she acts, so she makes for a perfect narrator; she's always taking in the things that happen around her and digesting them for the reader. She's very thoughtful about the nature of her life, family, and failed relationships, and we get to see her mind works. When she thinks about how she wants to quit modeling, she mulls over all the potential effects:
Each time I got close to telling my mom about this, though, something would happen to stop me. I was the only one left modeling. And while it is hard enough to take away something that makes a person happy, it's even more difficult when it seems like it's the only thing. (2.90)
Maybe no one pays that much attention to Annabel, but she sure is paying a lot of attention to everyone else. And because of her detailed observations, we get to see everything unfold around Annabel and those close to her.