13 REASONS WHY
You can’t stop the future.
You can’t rewind the past.The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.
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 Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why 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 firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.
You can’t rewind the past.The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.
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 Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why 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 firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.
★★★☆☆
Clay Jensen thought he'd made a real effort to get to know classmate and co-worker Hannah Baker. While working together at the local movie theater, he even begins to develop a bit of a crush on her, though he never got up the courage to admit the depth of his feelings. Sadly, Hannah quietly and mysteriously chooses to commit suicide. Weeks later, Clay comes home from school to find a package waiting for him. Inside is a collection of cassette tapes holding recordings of Hannah telling her story, from the very beginning leading up to how she came to make the decision she did and who she holds responsible for driving her to this heartbreaking end.
Hannah's story breaks things down into thirteen reasons (moments / people) for her choosing to end her life. The tapes are sent to all the people she holds accountable in some way, but they have to listen to the story to the very end to get all the answers. Hannah lays the story out on the tapes in the form of a kind of narrated walking tour around town, highlighting all the places that played a role in her aching heart & mind.
Thirteen Reasons Why has a certain tone in writing that shares similarities with another YA novel, Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler. That said, Thirteen Reasons Why is definitely has a much darker feel. In addition to the topics of teen depression and suicide, this novel also includes discussions on sexual consent and body objectification.
For the longest time, from almost day one at this school, it seemed that I was the only one who cared about me.
Put all your heart into getting that first kiss...only to have it thrown back in your face.
Have the only two people you truly trust turn against you.
Have one of them use you to get back at the other, and then be accused of betrayal.
Are you getting it now? Am I going too fast? Well, keep up!
Let someone take away any sense of privacy or security you might still possess. Then have someone use that insecurity to satisfy their own twisted curiosity.
She pauses. Slows down a bit.
Then come to realize that you're making mountains out of molehills. Realize how petty you've become. Sure, it may feel like you can't get a grip in this town. It may seem that every time someone offers you a hand up, they just let go and you slip further down. But you must stop being so pessimistic, Hannah, and learn to trust those around you.
So I do. One more time.
And then... well... certain thoughts begin creeping around. Will I ever get to control of my life? Will I always be shoved back and pushed around by those I trust?
Will my life ever go the way I want it to?
The next day, Marcus, I decided something. I decided to find out how many people at school might react if one of the students never came back.
I know this novel has become beloved by a number of teens since its release. I myself had high hopes for it, being someone who was diagnosed with clinical depression in my teens. For me, it had its highs and lows... the writing is decent, the plot is fair (but could be better), Hannah's character is pretty problematic --- understandably --- but ultimately kind of unlikeable in a lot of ways. As tragic as suicide is, it is unbelievably unfair to just "check out" and leave your friends and family high and dry with a hand of blame game. Especially when some of your reasoning is incredibly shallow. Hannah's shaming of Tyler was pretty dang petty. Courtney and Justin... maybe more logical there, being rumor starters. Hannah's interaction with Marcus is where the topic of consent comes in.
I realize the goal here was to make Hannah the victim to be pitied, but MAN are there some horrid sides to her character! I'm not saying that justified her tragic end, I'm only mentioning this as a kind of "ready yourself, reader, she's not all that much better than the people she's blaming."
Hannah has a flawed definition of what exactly classifies as assault / rape. There's also the fact that she herself knew of a girl she claimed was a friend being raped (the victim herself unaware), and did nothing to report it or notify the victim... until she shared the story in the tapes for her own confessional purposes. Classy. Just one moment of many where I wanted to be like, "Hannah, take some responsibility for your life here!"
Some brief notes / impressions I had after watching the first season of the tv adaptation:
Ep. 1 -- "doesn't even have any stickers or pictures in her locker" -- yes, definitely needs to be flagged on those grounds LOL
"Tony" --- hello, Mr. Pretty Face :-)
Ep. 2 -- The counselor switch brought back memories of my own HS experiences with this particular situation.
"You need friends, even just hot chocolate friends, especially when your life goes to shit." ~ Hannah
And Justin stoned in friend's poolhouse... parents don't care??
Ep. 3 -- little slow for me
Ep. 4-- "You spy on people every day." --- Calling out people-watching enthusiasts. True that, guilty myself.
Ep. 5 -- I like the dad here :-)
Ep. 6 -- a bunch added in (not in book, I mean)
Ep. 7-9 -- parts of the film here show better (than book) Hannah trying to find outlets for her pain; seeking help
* really nice soundtrack throughout!
I bumped my rating of this one from a 2 to a 3 after getting to the nitty gritty of Jessica's story and the cheerleader Jenny Kurtz. Also, Hannah's discussion with counselor Mr. Porter near the end --- while I appreciate his line, "a lot of you cared, just not enough", I feel like Porter himself failed Hannah in a lot of ways. Having had my share of these HS counselors myself back in the day, I remember quite well how aggravating it was to be stuck with one who didn't seem to have useful talk beyond what they might have covered in college textbooks.
Thirteen Reasons Why had an interesting premise and a powerful platform to open up the floor for important conversations, but Asher's execution of the topic, in the form of Hannah's somewhat catty personality, ruins a lot of the good that might've been done. This is worsened by the sheer money grab this series has become. There was absolutely no reason to depict Hannah's end in such a visceral way on screen when it wasn't even how it was written in the book. I can't tell you how disappointed I was to watch something that was clearly done for ratings and shock value. The subsequent seasons certainly did nothing to change my mind on that.
I do appreciate that when you search this book on Amazon, this message (image below) comes up. I don't know that I've seen this message for any other book I've looked up, but by all means, if you are having suicidal thoughts, feel free to make full use of this number and talk to someone. We want you here.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline:
1-800-273-8255
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