I had it figured out pretty early on - like by page 25 - but I don't think it was meant to be a huge shock for the reader. So it takes a long while for her to come clean to the reader - let alone anyone else - about what made her best friend hate her. Just as I thought this, Sophie opened her perfect mouth, narrowed her eyes at me, and delivered the verdict I'd spent my summer waiting for.Īnnabel isn't into expressing herself. I wondered, in her first glance, what was different in me. She was skinnier, if that was possible, and had done away with the thick eyeliner she'd taken to wearing the previous spring, replacing it with a more natural look, all bronzes and pinks.

Which obviously isn't true:įor a second, we just stared at each other, and I instantly noticed the changes in her: Her curly dark hair was shorter, her earrings new. People see Annabel as 'the girl who has everything'. Of course, just because the modeling isn't hideously painful doesn't mean that Annabel wants to continue with it. Now, I might have dwelled on the explicit irony of this last one, but the on-screen me was already moving on. Clearly, it meant having a megaphone, some smarts, and a big group of friends. 'The girl who has everything,' he'd said, moving his hands in a tight, circular motion, as if that was all it took to encompass something so vast, not to mention vague. The director, fresh-faced and just out of film school, had explained to me the concept of this, his creation. Well, her two older sisters have eating disorders - one is recovered and one is in the midst of recovery, but for the most part, Annabel's modeling is not a bad scene: All three have spent their childhood and teen years modeling - not horrible Living-Dolls-beauty-pageant-modeling, but wholesome, not-massively-pressured, strong-family-support-network-type-modeling. Rather embarrassing, but I recovered quickly.Īnnabel Greene is the youngest of three girls. I found myself all teary on the back steps of the library during my lunch break. Yes, I admit that I usually do cry at the end of her books, but it's a smiley-weepy-cry, not a heart-wrenching sob. I know that she won't throw in some devastating sob-causing twist at the end. Her books aren't as light as Joan Bauer's, but I still feel safe when I pick one up.

I mentioned recently that Sarah Dessen is on my list of comfort-read-authors.

Just listen sarah dessen characters