Title: 13 Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Publisher: Razorbill (Translated from English by Livre de Poche Jeunesse)
Publication date: October 18, 2007
Price: 10.40$ CAN at Indigo Books and Music Online
Over 3 million copies of 13 Reasons Why have been sold throughout the United States in the past 10 years. Being a # 1 New York Times and international bestseller with its own Netflix series, I thought this book would be an excellent choice for my first ever book review!
Short Summary
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers 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.
Review
Like it was summarized, this book is really hefty on the whole suicide, depression, and bullying stuff. In a way, it can be a good thing and a bad thing and I’ve heard both sides so many times so here’s what I think of it all:
This novel faces real problems. I personally love YA novels that really hit you hard with the truth ( like The Hate U Give 🙂 ) I see that Thirteen Reasons Why could maybe be of help to some people who have gone through these sort of situations. Otherwise, the plot was interesting, I really liked having Clay’s point of view. I think the innocence of his character really softened the blow of the whole plot. However, Hannah’s tapes really made me think of how vicious some people can be and how people can be suffering without anyone noticing. This novel to me was a story but also a life lesson. Everyone take things differently some people could go through what Hannah went through and be unaffected while others might of chosen Hannah’s path. This has really made me more aware of my friends and family and others around me because I’d never wish upon anyone to go through what Hannah went through.
You don’t know what went on in the rest of my life. At home. Even at school. You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can’t be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life.
– Hannah Baker
Final Thoughts / Recommendation
I’m giving this two stars, It was good and I think it could of helped some people but I feel like it really glorified suicide (this is just the impression I got) I also thought that the ending was very abrupt and was very unclear and I really did not enjoy that.
Im not sure if I would recommend this novel to someone who suffers from something similar to Hannah or Clay since for some people I think this could really be a trigger warning and that taking Hannah path is the only solution. ( IT IS NOT ) This was a really sad story so I’d recommend it if you want to shed a couple tears and if you just want a quick read since it was only about 200-so pages.
I’d love to hear what you think of the book! Let me know!
Have a great day everyone!♥ 🙂