Author: Jay Asher
Publisher: Razorbill
Publication Date: October 18, 2011
Source: Library
Summary: Jay Asher's brilliant first novel is a moving, highly original story that focuses on a set of audiotapes made by a girl before she committed suicide, and which explain to 13 people the reasons why she decided to end her life. Told in a highly effective duel narrative -- alternating between the girl s voice and the thoughts of a boy who is listening -- this honest, poignant story reveals how other people's actions shape, and by extension can ruin, an individual's faith in people. Intensely powerful and painfully real, Thirteen Reasons Why reveals how brutal high school can be, the consequences of spreading rumors, and the lasting effects of suicide on those left behind.
Review: I'd seen 13 Reasons Why around a lot and when it came up as a book club book (I belong to the Lit Express Book Club) on GoodReads, it finally gave me a reason, to read an amazing, deep book.
13 Reasons Why was an emotional rollercoaster. And I admitt, I'm going to have a hard time reviewing this because it covers a subject matter so deep and depressing, and that is suicide.
When this novel started, my heart went out to Clay, the boy reading Hannah's suicide tapes. He seemed like a really nice guy, and I couldn't imagine, and neither could he, why he would be on the tapes. There was a certain element of suspense in this book, you weren't sure what was going to happen, who was going to be on the tapes, and what emotions you were going to feel, and there were a lot of them.
The only thing that really annoyed me was that some of Hannah's reasons for committing suicide were a little...unrealistic. You shouldn't do something as drastic as killing yourself just because some awful people said things. You have to be strong enough to get through the terrible times. But it wasn't that big of a deal because the message is more powerful than anything else.
Overall, this was an emotional, deep look into the life of someone who committed suicide and the effects it had on the others around her. I would recommend this to anyone.
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