Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher
I first heard about Thirteen Reasons Why on Jen Robinson’s book blog. She’d read an advanced copy and when she later noted that it had officially been published, I remember how intrigued I’d been by the book review and looked it up at my library.
My library only had it on CD, so I downloaded it to my iPod and listened to it while I ran, rode the bus, and worked on computer projects at work.
Let me tell you one thing about me first: I’m a sucker for a good plot idea. That’s why I was so sure I’d like Eat, Pray, Love – it’s seriously a good concept.
Th1rteen R3asons Why by jay asher
The concept for Th1rteen R3asons Why is also (at least in my mind) a good one: Hannah Baker, a high school student, has committed suicide a few weeks previous to the opening of the book. Clay Jensen, a fellow student who has liked Hannah from afar for a long time, receives a package in the mail which contains seven cassette tapes, each side of which explains one of the reasons (or people) that convinced her to kill herself.
The person who received the package needs to listen to all 13 sides (one of which will be about them) and then pass it on to the next person on the tapes. If they fail to do so, Hannah warns, she’s passed a second set of the tapes on to someone else who will make them public.
Clay is horrified to think that he might be part of the reason Hannah killed herself, but can’t think of anything he ever did that might have hurt her.
The first tape talks about Hannah’s move to the city at the beginning of high school and her first boyfriend there (whom Tape 1: Side A is directed at). Although they only dated for a few months and never did more than kiss, he exaggerated stories of their relationship to make himself look cooler and this, in turn, gave Hannah quite a reputation. Clay himself, despite having a crush on her, hesitated to ever make a move because he worried the rumors might be true.
From there, things progressively got worse, with one student after another treating Hannah poorly or thoughtlessly because of the things that other students had said about Hannah and making her life increasingly miserable.
Hannah herself takes some of the blame for times where she was too afraid or too embarrassed to stand up for someone else or to tell the truth about several incidents.
Generally, I steer clear of suicide books. It’s a topic I’m a little uncomfortable with and I rarely like a book that has it as a major theme. But the this one really struck all the right notes for me.
I was really hoping that, at the end, it would turn out that Hannah wasn’t really dead and had just been trying to teach her fellow students a lesson. Allow me to prematurely extinguish that hope: she really is dead.
Th1rteen R3asons Why is not a book I’d recommend to just anyone – it does have some pretty hefty themes and suicide books, by definition, are not generally uplifting. But for a more mature reader, it could likely be pretty touching. It was definitely a book I thought about for days after I finished it.
Also, I think the Th1rteen R3asons Why audiobook version was better than print. Because the book has two narrators (Hannah and Clay), it could be a bit tricky to keep track of which is speaking in text (apparently Hannah’s words are italicized in the print copy) whereas it’s completely obvious when the narrator switches from a girl to a boy on the audiobook.
If you liked this review of Th1rteen R3asons Why, you might also like these books:
For not recommending a book you’ve certainly gotten me intrigued. I’ll have to see if it’s available at my library this week.
Suburban Turmoil Blog Hopping Weekend…Virginia
Sounds interesting…I’ll have to try it. Like you I am always a sucker for a good plot. I thought the same thing about “eat, Love, Pray”. I really enjoyed the first third–about Italy–but they I wasn’t too interested in the rest and I set it aside, I’ll have to keep trying though…
Wow, this sounds very intriguing. I totally want to check it out.
Glad that you like the book, Janssen, if “liked” is the right way to put it for a book on such a heavy topic. I can completely see that listening would be better than reading it – I had a little trouble keeping the narrators straight when reading the ARC. But I do think that it’s incredibly well-written, and valuable, too. I know that Jay has received some amazing feedback about the book from teens. (See this post, for instance.)
You are not the only person who hoped Hannah wasnt really dead..I hoped she wasnt dead either so at the end of the book i was sad 🙁 but it was one of the BEST books i’ve read in quite a while and i have read a number of really good books..anyone who hasnt read it should immediately go to Barnes and Noble or Borders or somewhere like that and get the book. You’ll LOVE it
I really enjoyed this book, and it changed the way i look at the world as a teen. I think that many people should read this and get the very valuable lesson out of this book. By this I am writing a school paper on it. It has touched my life.
I have read this book and i must say that it did get me thinking. i also once had the thought of suicide but i have very good friends by my side. This book got me thinking about my situation. I also recommend this book for mature readers. Suicide is a very touchy subject to some. i read the book and it was a bit tough with the changing views but if you get in the book enough it doesn't get so hard to understand it. LOVED the book!!