Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box 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. 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.

Review

TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY

Author: Jay Asher

Age: 14 and up

Gender: Boys and Girls

Rating: ****

This is an amazing book written on a terrible subject.  It is written about the suicide of a high school girl named Hannah Baker. It does not have happy ending, in fact there are very few moments of happiness found anywhere between the pages.

It’s not about saving someone from suicide because in this case Hannah is already dead. Instead it is about a girl who wanted to explain her story without anyone trying to stop her. I found this book very difficult to read but also very difficult to put down.

This story is written in third person by a boy named Clay Jensen, who upon receiving a mysterious box of cassette tapes from classmate and former crush Hannah Baker realizes that he is one of the thirteen reasons why Hannah Baker decided to kill herself.  I thought Clay’s part in the book was absolutely perfect. His thoughts and actions were always so honest in ways that made me both love him and pity him at the same time. He was just a normal guy like any of my friends until he received the tapes which completely changed his life.

At the beginning of the book I was severely irritated by Hannah’s obsession to detail.  I felt like she was overanalyzing everything people did or said because she needed an excuse to explain her actions.  It took me a while to realise these seemingly insignificant details were part of the point.

In this book Jay Asher makes readers think about how our actions affect others around us and how what we say or how we act, although insignificant at the time may affect the people around us more than we could ever possibly imagine. By the end of the story I was a bit frightened to realise that so many things Hannah spoke about were such ordinary every day actions, but I realize now it really helped me relate to her story.

For sure this is a really heavy topic for only my second review but every time I thought about picking another book I kept thinking about all the things I could say about this one!  I really hope you pick up this book because all I can say is that it was completely fantastic.

Read it and let me know what you think!

Till next time,

~Novel Girl