Thirteen Reasons Why

Book:  Thirteen Reasons Why

Author:  Jay Asher

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch.  Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannan Baker - his classmate & crush - who committed suicide 2 weeks earlier.

Hannah's voice tells him that there are 13 reasons she decided to end her life.  Clay is one of them.  If he listens, he'll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide.  He becomes a first-hand witness to Hannah's pain, & learns the truth about himself - a truth he never wanted to face.
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First Line:  "Sir?" she repeats. "How soon do you want it to get there?"

I have heard & read so much about this book so I was anxious to get my hands on it.....

& I was not disappointed.

This book goes through the tapes that Hannah makes before she makes the decision to end her life. 

I dont want to give anything away, but the 13 reasons sort of build on each other & it really shows how things in life are connected as you move on in this world.  How situations can build on each other, snowball, & sometimes grow out of control.

It also shows how someone can get frustrated & loose all sense of hope.

It is a heart wrenching story really.  My heart goes out to the character, Clay, who we follow as he listens to the tape.  He is on the list of the reasons why, & it breaks his heart.... & my heart FOR Clay. Which shows how good the writing is, that I connected so much with this character.

I would love to read another book on how these 13 people interact with each other after hearing these tapes...

Be warned, once you start this book, you wont want to put it down.  You'll want to know who the next tape is for, & what happened to drive Hannah to a place of despair.

On a personal side, I want to scream at Hannah that its stupid to let other teenagers drive you to that point of hopelessness, but we know that suicide is a reality that happens so much in our society.  This is really a great insight to keep an eye out for the teenagers you know in your life...

Favorite quotes from the book:
"Its hard to be disappointed when what you expected turns out to be true" -Hannah

"I'm listening to someone give up.  Someone I knew - someone I liked.  I'm listening.  But still, I'm too late" - Clay


My rating:  4 skeins