Blurb
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.
On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list.
Through Hannah and Clay’s dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.
Stats
Page Length: 336
Publication Year: 2007
Genre: Young Adult
Characters: Hannah, Clay
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review.
Thoughts
To start off the main reason I decided to read this book was because everyone at work was raving out the TV version of it that has been on Netflix. After some googling, I realized that it was a book first. So I halted watching the show and read it first.
This is very different to what I normally read in that I read usually go for happy themed books which don’t really deal with such a serious subject line.
Story/ Characters
I thought the way it was written was very cleverly done. It was very easy to follow and I had now problems keeping up with the flow of the story.
I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed the story but I do see the importance of it. I thought the accumulation of events that lead Hannah to take her life to be realistic. I know from my own experience of being at high school that rumors are the norm and can make a person’s life miserable.
The most disturbing thing was Hannah’s witnessing of the rape of a fellow classmate and the sexual assault that she herself suffered. The fact that she felt she couldn’t tell anyone and that because she didn’t say no it, this was somehow ok, she didn’t recognize that she didn’t say yes either and therefore kind of blamed herself.
I also felt the lack of input from her parents to be a little shocking, I mean they were just never there… and nobody else saw the signs that Hannah’s mental health was slowly deteriorating.
I’m not sure how I feel about Clay. At times I felt really bad for the guy but other times not so much.
Favorite Quote:
Conclusion:
From the outset, I knew that this wasn’t going to be a favorite of mine. I liked the writing and I understood Hannah’s story but it just wasn’t for me.
However, if you like books that touch on true life then you will probably like this books.
My Rating: 3/5 🌟🌟🌟
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