Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Date Published: December 7th 2007
Publisher: Razor Bill
Pages: 288
Introduction
Clay Jenson knows that Hannah Baker is dead, which makes it very eerie when he gets a package of cassette tapes, with Hannah Baker's voice on them, telling stories, revealing secrets. He doesn't want anything to do with the tapes, but her voice tells him that he is the topic of one of the tapes
Hannah committed suicide, but before she did, she recorded seven tapes. On them are thirteen reasons why.
Clay is one of the reasons.
Cover
The cover is very simple and very monochromatic, but I like it.
Story-telling
Essentially, when you read Thirteen Reasons Why, you're getting two stories. You hear Hannah's through Clay's earphones, and Clay's reaction to the tapes as he wanders through his town listening to them. It's a very suspenseful story, as you wait for Clay's turn to come around, to hear why someone like him ended up the center of one of Hannah's tapes.
As a warning to people who might be considering picking up this book, I just want to mention that you may find some of the stories Hannah tells a little boring, as they aren't all super excited, but rather realistic, and we all know that not everything we do in out lives is super exciting.
Characters
I loved all of the characters. They were all very honestly written, they seemed like people who genuinely exist especially the two protagonists.
Clay's tape (spoilers, highlight between the brackets to reveal)
(Clay's tape, as I expected came late in the novel. Obviously, it wouldn't be much of a suspense novel if Clay was the first person mentioned. I think the author did a great job of placing where Clay's tape comes up. It wasn't too soon, or too late. Either of those options probably would have lowered my opinion of the book. Too soon, and the desire to finish the book would have drastically dropped. There wouldn't have been much to look forward too. Too late, and as well as struggling to get through the book, the ending may have been too abrupt and not talked about enough. Anyway, as I was saying, I think the placing Clay as the ninth reason on the tapes was perfect!)
As for the reason Clay is on the tapes, I think it worked nicely, even if I think it was slightly predictable, and when I say that, I mean, very slightly predictable because most of me was expecting a huge twist, because Clay is written to be pretty likeable. I was mostly expecting Clay to turn out to be a horrible person so, well played, Jay Asher. I'm very happy with the way that it turned out,, I didn't feel let down at all.)
Conclusion
I loved this book, and I can't believe it took me this long finally read it. (I'm pretty sure it's been on my shelf since about 2013.) Although I mentioned that some people may find some of the stories a little boring, I loved all of them. This book had me turning pages, not just to find out why Clay is one of Hannah's thirteen reasons, but just to simply unfold Hannah's story, and no part of it disappointed me. I became attached to Hannah and truly felt for her, I felt Clay's uneasiness, Overall, this story was wonderfully written.
I recommend that all teens read this at some point. Although watch out, this book is a giant Not-suitable-for-family-viewing-viewer-discretion-advised stamp, as the theme of the book is suicide, and it deals with a few sexual themes. So, yes. I think that all teens should read this book, maybe wait until you're slightly older than thirteen or fourteen, This book is valuable, because while raising the issue of suicide and other issues that greatly affect adolescents, it teaches how easily we can impact peo
ple in large ways, even when doing small things.
Anyway, basically what I'm trying to say in this review can be summed up in about four words: This book. Read it.
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