Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Genre: YA Realistic Fiction
Blurb (on back of book):
You can’t stop the future.
You can’t rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.
Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.
MY OPINION: *****
This was my second time reading this book and I realized through the process of rereading it that there were a lot of things that I didn't understand or didn't pick up on. I just finished the first season of the TV show and have started the new second season and through watching the show and rereading the book, I understood a lot more. I couldn't help but notice the differences and changes between the book and the TV show but that's to be expected of a book-to-film adaptation.
Before you ask, to be honest, I liked both the book and the TV show but the book was more confusing but also simpler (if that makes any sense). I liked being able to watch the characters grow and learn rather than reading about them in this particular case, seeing as this dealt with so many hard topics that sometimes real people (actors) can cover instead.
This book was about a girl named Hannah Baker who recently committed suicide. She's a high schooler and being a part of the less mature society of the world, many have been confused, angry, or contemptuous towards her and what she did. However, she sends out 13 tapes to the people who she felt contributed the most to her death and through the tapes we hear her story. The book itself is told from Clay Jensen's point of view, a fellow high-schooler who had a crush on Hannah and made out with her once at a party.
Clay receives the tapes and upon listening to them, finds his entire world changed. He, like many others, was devastated by Hannah's death but didn't know the full story. He's innocent and he's nice: he followed others, listened to rumors and believed them, but only because he's that type of guy to accept everything. He knows things are just the way they are.
He starts off by hearing the story of Hannah's first kiss and how one little thing became a huge thing and started her off with the series of unfortunate events that contributed to her ultimate death. We hear about old friends and things that they did and we learn about the snowball effect and how everything that you thought was inconsequential wasn't because it all added up together.
I really loved the whole format of this book. We read it in dual perspectives throughout the entire book and it's not separated by chapter. We hear Hannah's side through Clay's ears as he listens to the tapes and we hear Clay's side as he reacts to what Hannah is saying and tells his side of the story.
This book dealt with a lot of hard topics that I think many people are opposed to talking about. However, it was mature and wasn't promoting anything and it helped readers, especially younger or more vulnerable ones, to understand a lot of things.
Suicide. It's a thing. People sometimes take their own lives and this is an example of a book that dealt with it without justifying anything but instead explaining why someone might choose to commit this deed. It wasn't portrayed as a good thing or the right thing to do, but instead it was honest: it showed the things that lead up to something this extreme and this is true of real life. We sometimes do things that we think may not be important but are important to other people and sometimes we just don't know that.
Rape. This is a huge one in this book. We see two examples of rape, though the second time was a hard one to decide for Hannah. However, EVEN IF YOU DON'T SAY NO, IT IS STILL RAPE UNTIL YOU SAY YES. It's called consent, people. Look into it. I thought that this was also dealt with in a mature way because we see how the people in this book were affected by it and everything that happened. It also did not in any way JUSTIFY the rapist, but instead portrayed him not as a bad person but someone who had done many bad deeds.
So yeah. This book was intense and also very impactful. I definitely understood a lot more reading this the second time around. I have yet to finish Season 2 but I'm working on it. I would recommend this book to mature readers.
Main Character: Clay, Hannah
Sidekick(s): Tony, etc
Villain(s): People who led up to Hannah's death, misunderstanding, little things, suicide, rape, etc
Realistic Fiction Elements: This is sadly very real to life.
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