Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher October 25, 2007
What if someone you knew committed suicide and then sent you a recording explaining the role you had in their suicide. Would you listen to the recording? This is Clay Jensen’s dilemma when he recieves an unlabeled package containing seven tapes and a map. The voice on the tape is Hannah Baker a classmate of Clays who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s instructions are to listen to the tapes, follow the map, and then pass them on to the next person on her list. Afraid of what role he played in Hannah’s suicide, Clay is reluctant to listen any further. However, once Clay starts the tapes he is compelled by Hannah’s honest and often painful narrative on the events that lead to her death. Through Hannah’s eyes Clay learns that one small action can tear a person’s life apart, and uncovers truths that change his life forever.
Thirteen Reasons Why is Jay Asher’s first novel, and the premise for the novel was conceived after he took an audio tour at a museum. (Apparently the woman’s voice on the audio tour was “eerie,” and it was unsettling for him to hear an unseen voice describe something in front of him.) From the very first chapter I was hooked into the characters and found the two perspective narrative to be riveting and fresh. The plotline was suspenseful and I wanted to know, like Clay, how he played a role in Hannah’s death. Overall, Asher does an excellent job weaving a story that is gut-wrenching and true to teen life.
interesting, thanks for sharing. i like the idea.
I thought it was a very suspenseful read. Although I could have done without Clay’s constant interuptions. I’m not sure I needed to hear over and over that he would have talked to her only, if only, she had approached him. It broke up Hannah’s narrative too much and detracted from the suspense. Someone somewhere compared it to Gail Giles and I liked that comparison, I thought her fans would like this one a lot.
I kinda liked Clay’s voice throughout the story. It was interesting to see his perspective in the present as Hannah talked from the past. I wasn’t too distracted by it. Was the Giles comparsion a referral to “What Happened to Cassie McBride?” Yeah I could see the similarites there.
I had a dear friend from high school commit suicide. Just the premise of this book turns me off. He was dear to me but his suicide note left no doubt that his act was selfish and planned to cause as much hurt as possible to the people that cared for him while as the time torpedoing a young woman’s life. I just can’t bring myself to read this.
Tate, I’m very sorry for your loss and I can understand your aversion towards reading this book. However, the book is a work of fiction and I feel that this book could help teens identify the warning signs for suicide and perhaps even stop friends or their loved ones from doing harm to themselves.
This book is amazing. I mean it. I was glad to come across it–i love reading and was looking for a new book at barnes & noble one day and found it and thought it sounded kinda sad and eerie but i felt like i really wanted to read it anyway-that i should read it. im very glad i did too. I was glad of the lessons i learned from it. but im also glad because im going through hard times and a few weeks after i read the book and had finally stopped thinking about it, i started thinking about suicide. the “i could never do that”s turned into “what if”s and “but im so lost and upset and frustrated and maybe it would just be better”s and then “i could if i . . . .”s and it was a really scary time. but, among the other things i thought of that kept me going, was thinking about this book, and referring back to what happened in it, the outcome, and all that. and thats part of the reason im still here and finally decided to forget about suicide. its scary the way i could relate to hannah and her feelings–not the situations exactly but the crazy emotions and just how small things affected me in such tremendous ways and all that–it was scary. before i was even thinking about suicide i was relating to her. im glad i took a different course of action than Hannah though. so, thank you, Jay Asher, for writing this amazing book. its great and it really has done some good in my life.
This book was amazing to me. I picked it up at the book just because i had a school project to do, but this turned it to my favorite book i have read so far. When i started to read this book, i couldnt stop. It kept me interested, i could almost feel the emotions clay had. The reason why i got this book besides the fact it was for school was, at the library i searched SUICIDE because this past september my best friend killed himself. At first i didnt want to bring myself to read this, but i wanted to make an effort to understand any reasons he had. He left nothing behind explaining it. I remember the last converstaion i had with him, and i didnt think anything of it. He said, “Do you ever feel like you cant talk to anyone?” i sed “Yeah sometimes when something happens that you cant talk about or explain to anyone.” he said “yeah, but just everything put ontop of eachother?” i sed “im not shur i know what you mean” he sed “nevermind, but promise me you’ll always care about me even if i do something stupid.” i sed “of coarse i will” he sed “and promise you’d miss me if i ever left” i sed “Dillon, i swear to you,” he sed “thanx, uhh, i gotta go now, my mom wants me to do the laundry.” i sed “alright call me back if you get a chance” he sed “yeah, maybe. Ash..” i sed “yeah dill?” he sed “I love you, and if i do ever leave, ill keep you with me, and ill miss you more than youll ever know.” i sed “hah, i love you too dill, alot. remember that. k? and trust me, if i lost you i wouldnt know what to do.” he sed “yeah, sorry.” i sed “what?” he sed “haha, lisen to us, we sound all serious.” i sed “your scring me” he sed “im sorry, i g2g tho i love you.” i sed “yeah i love you too.” he sed “promise?” i sed “promise” he sed “goodbye ash” i sed “godbye dill”
that was the last i talked to him.
andd i couldnt even tell he was thinking about it. im stupid, at least i feel stupid. i know, i couldve stopped him. i KNOW I COULD HAVE. i didnt ask anything tho, i let it go.
this book helped me realize, i cant blame myself.
Even though i miss him, i have to accept it.
I love you dill.
I promise.
RIP 6-6-90 ~ 9-9-07
Forever and ever babe.
OMG this was soooooooooo good! But I agree with the other people that Clay was annoying!!!
So i finished this book, and im doing a book report on it. I really loved it. But i wrote down all the names that was the reason why she killed herself. I only got 12.. is there another reason that wasn’t a name? HELP PLEASE! xD
if you read this, and reply, i won’t see it because i probably won’t get on this website again. So just email me xheartbeatz@aim.com with the subject “13 Reasons Why” THANK YOU. :]
First off, I would like to say sorry for all of those bloggers who posted about their friends giving up on life and others, it is a really hard think to talk about and it is great that you are able to share it with others so thank you. I would llike to say that I loved this book, I felt that the emotions portrated by all of the characters came off really strongly and had a great effect on the words and whether or not you kept reading. I read this book after reading Deadline and Before I die which are both about people who find out that they are dieing and life their lives to the end and be as happy as possible about it, I found it rather different when I picked up Th1rteen R3easons Why and realized that it was a book about suicide. However, this did not stop me from reading it, and quite frankly I’m glad that I did. It taught me that you shouldn’t keep your emotions bottled up inside and that when you talk to someone about a subject, i.e suicide but don’t actually bring it up then they’re not going to grasp what you are talking about.
So to everyone who is posting about this book, remember that it is fiction but it has to facts hidden inside it too. All you need to see it is to press play.