Published: October 18, 2007
Publisher: Razorbill (an Imprint of Penguin Group)
Source: Review copy from publisher (seriously, thank you so much)
Find the author: Goodreads || Website 
Buy: Amazon || The Book Depository || B&N

~ The Blurb ~
From Goodreads

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen 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.

~ My Thoughts ~

This book was, and still is, incredible. I’m not exactly sure how to go about reviewing a book like this. Should I talk about the unique format, the incredible and compelling narrative, the intense emotion or the ultimate message that Jay Asher is giving?

The message…
I think that I will start with the message because I have read a lot of reviews criticizing this book and the reasons why Hannah chose to commit suicide and I think they are missing the point. And that point is far too important to ignore. Asher says it himself at the end of the novel in the interview questions:

“…even though Hannah admits that the decision to take her life was entirely her own, it’s also important to be aware of how we treat others. Even though someone appears to shrug off a sideways comment or to not be affected by a rumor, it’s impossible to know everything going on in that person’s life, and how we might be adding to his/her pain. People do have an impact on the lives of others…”

This book wasn’t about the individual reasons or events leading up to Hannah’s suicide as much as it was about how your actions, or lack thereof, have the power to affect someone’s life is ways that you cannot even imagine. The unfortunate reality is that suicide is a desperate decision made at a time when a person feels that there is so little hope, and so little to live for that they cannot imagine any other way out. Suicide is the action of someone who is hurting. It doesn’t matter why they are hurting of it the same situation wouldn’t hurt you, the fact is they are hurting. Who are we to judge their reasons and determine which events are worthy of harming yourself which ones aren’t. That kind of thinking just doesn’t make sense to me.

On to book itself…
Thirteen Reasons Why was A-MAZING. I could literally stop my review right here because that is all you need to know! But there are so many reasons why I loved this book I guess I will share some of them!

The narrative: Asher was able to seamlessly transition between two view points throughout the entire novel and I have never seen it done quite like this before. The entire novel took place over a period of 24 hours and focused on the evening that Clay Jensen spent walking around town listening to the tapes that Hannah Baker left for him (and 12 others) explaining why she decided to take her own life.  The author used the symbols for “play”, “pause”, and “stop” to help distinguish between Hannah’s narrative on the tape and Clay’s narrative in the present. Clay’s thoughts were interspersed throughout Hannah’s so readers were given Clay’s reactions to what he was hearing at the same time he would have though them, as opposed to waiting until the end of the tape to read what he thought. Ordinarily I would think that this would get confusing, but it not only worked but it completely made the story for me. The pace of this novel was extremely fast and I stayed up until well into the morning over two nights finishing this book. I couldn’t get the characters or the story out of my head and had to read more.

Asher didn’t have to try to evoke emotion it just poured out naturally as the story progressed. From Hannah’s initial confrontational tone to her gradual apathy and despair and Clay’s shock, fear and intense sadness, it was all there.

It is hard for me to decide exactly how I feel about Hannah’s character. On the one hand the very idea of the tapes didn’t sit very well with me. It felt extremely vindictive and her threat to each of the 13 listeners didn’t do much to foster a sense of compassion or sympathy within me at first. But then I started reading, really reading through the novel and I couldn’t help my heart breaking for this girl a little more with each tape. Her loneliness and despair transcended the pages and by the end of the novel I was a mess.  

”I started rocking back and forth, back and forth. And once again, no one was around to hear me cry.”

The emotional journey this book takes you on is certainly not limited to Hannah’s character. As much as I ached for Hannah I couldn’t even begin to put myself in Clay’s shoes. He admired Hannah and wanted to be a part of her life, and the closest that he got to her was through a series of tapes detailing the reasons why she choose to end her life. He would have come out of that evening with so many scars, as would anyone who listened to the tapes. As much as Thirteen Reasons Why is a look into the heart and mind of a girl who was desperately looking for a way out of her life, it is also a study of the emotional turmoil those affected by suicide go through as well. Suicide does not end in death, not for the friends, family or community of the person who has taken their life. We could argue for days whether the people who were given the tapes “deserved” to be on them, or “deserved” to be forced to listen to them but the only fact that matters is that they did listen, and it will affect them.

This is one of those books that I wish I could have read when I was a teenager. There is so much more that I could say about this piece of fiction but it unfortunately would not do it justice. It ultimately comes down to the fact that Thirteen Reasons Why is a haunting and unforgettable novel that I highly recommend.  

Continue the discussion: Have you read Thirteen Reasons Why? I know there have been a lot of very different opinions on this book and the character and I would love to hear yours!

I received a review copy of Thirteen Reasons Why from Penguin Canada (thank you!!!) in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

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