The Magic Hour Summary

Since the last time I have journaled I have finished Magic hour by Kristin Hannah and Just Listen by Sarah Dessen. Magic Hour is about a feral child who was found in the small town of Rain Valley. It follows the police chief, Ellie, and her sister, Julia, while they try to figure out how to help this child. Julia is a psychiatrist who is working to get the girl to speak, while Ellie is trying to find whom the girl belongs to. Just Listen is about Annabel, the youngest sister of three in the Greene family. The family seems like they have a perfect life. The girls all model, Annabel is popular at school, they live in the perfect neighborhood, and they appear to everyone like the perfect family. The reader quickly discovers that this is not the

The father of the girl, now called Alice, came forward and proved that she was his. This was a problem, though, because Julia was already going through the adoption process and connecting even more with Alice. To make matters worse, Ellie got a lead on the investigation of Alice’s case and discovered the cabin where she was kept. The cabin was closed off in the woods, with two ropes on opposite sides where Alice and her mother spent years tied up. Alice’s mother died before Alice got away, and everyone was horrified with what they saw: “’Jesus’ He said, his face pale, his moth trembling. ‘Someone tied her up like a damned dog? How-‘ ‘Don’t-‘ Ellie could feel the tears streaking down her cheeks; it was unprofessional, but inevitable” (Hannah 354). When Alice’s father came to take her back with him, she started to retreat back to her old ways; hiding, not speaking, and making animal noises instead of using her words. It seemed that all progress that Julia made with the girl would be lost if the two were separated. Alice’s father took her and started driving back to his home when she started freaking out. No one could calm her down except Julia, so in the end her father gave up custody: “’She went… Crazy. Howling. Growling. She scratched her face…” (Hannah 385). She needed Julia and Julia needed her, and in the end things worked out perfectly. I really enjoyed how this book was fiction but seemed like a true story. Kristin

Throughout the entire novel Annabel shows that she keeps everything in. She has a secret that she cannot get herself to tell to anyone; “The worst part was that I had things I wanted to tell my mother… She'd been through too much…I could not add to the weight… I did my best to balance it out, bit by bit, word by word, story by story, even if none of them were true” (Hannah 106). Although I don’t have a big secret that I’m keeping in, I can relate to Annabel. I have trouble opening up to people. I feel like if I tell people things that are bothering me it will just burden them, so instead I keep everything in. Similar to Annabel, I know this isn’t the right way to deal with things, but I still can’t seem to get myself to change it. In the end of the book Annabel figures out how to deal with her secret, and eventually tells her boyfriend and family. I am also connecting Annabel’s boyfriend, Owen, to one of my friends. When Annabel was popular and had all her other friends, she thought Owen was a loner. He always had headphones in, he didn’t hang out with anyone, and he had been to jail in the past. She judged him based on those things and never got to know the real him. When she lost all her friends over the summer, she started sitting at the same table as him because everyone else hated her. She eventually learned the real him and realized that she was too quick to judge. I have also had a similar