Third Quarter Outside Reading Book Review

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Penguin Books, 2007. Genre: Fiction

Thirteen Reasons Why is about a high school boy Clay Jenson, who discovers a box of tapes on his front porch one day. The tapes are recordings of Hannah Baker, a classmate who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Clay listens to the first tape and discovers that there are thirteen reasons why Hannah decided to commit suicide and he is one of them. As he listens to the tapes, he follows the map of the town and spends the whole night learning about Hannah and her life. Most importantly, he learns who and what each person did that influenced her to end her life.

“If you have the chance to read only one novel this year, Thirteen Reasons Why should be that book. It’s sad, amazing, heartbreaking, and hopeful, all at the same time…” says Teen Read Too.

In Thirteen Reasons Why, the book is told in first person because Clay is telling the story as well as listening to Hannah talk about herself. The reader knows the thirteen reasons why Hannah committed suicide as Jay Asher reveals them to Clay as he listens to the tapes. You know exactly what Hannah recorded and what Clay is listening to.

This is Jay Asher’s first book and it was terrific. I am looking forward to his upcoming books. Thirteen Reasons Why is so different than any other book I have read. This is the first book with a conflict like this and told from this creative point of view. It was very captivating and although it was a depressing book, I never wanted to put it down.

“You don’t belong in the same way as the others. It’s like that song: One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn’t belong. And that’s you Clay. But you need to be here if I’m going to tell my story. To tell it more completely.”(200).

I love reading books about things that I can connect with and when the characters are around my age. This book was one that popped out from the others because it was about something I had never read before. I wanted to learn the thirteen reasons why Hannah ended her life. For being Jay Asher’s first book, he has blown me away. I was left speechless at the end of the book. I was so mesmerized at the detail and the thought that went into the book.

Although something like this hasn’t happened to me, I felt as if it actually did after reading the book. The book drew me in and I felt as if I was with Clay discovering Hannah’s life and her emotional rollercoaster. I truly felt sorry for Hannah Baker, I realized that the slightest things that some people do to others may not seem like a big deal, but as they build up, sooner or later the person is going to break. After reading this book, I am more aware of how I treat other people and what I say to them because you never know what one nice thing will do to them. It could literally save their life.