Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Genre: YA/Contemporary
Rating: ★★★★★

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.

I absolutely loved this book. First off, it's about Hannah Baker, a teenage girl who we'd see as normal by first look, but actually has (or had) some issues that she couldn't handle on her own. Hannah here, committed suicide and no one really knew why. But little do people know that before she ended her life, she created 13 cassette tapes that has her reasons.

The book is from the point of view of Clay. He receives these 13 video tapes from an unknown sender, and puts it on to listen to it. I was moved by how he couldn't take hearing it at first. It gave me the sense that Clay must have really cared for Hannah, but didn't show it enough.

After listening, Clay sends them out anonymously to the next person. He grew, as well. Because of listening to Hannah's story, Clay learns to stop being quiet. Quiet in terms of being afraid, that is.

Today, sadly, many people are victims of depression, bullying, hurt, and countless people have already committed suicide because for them, it's the only choice; and I loved how Jay Asher wrote a story about how the little things that we do could affect people differently. I could say it changed me. I learned to simply just respect people and being just someone to talk to, in general. I make it a point that everyone who talks to me will have clearer thoughts by the end of our conversation. It could go a long way, you know.

It's really something. It's mostly about what teenagers, or anyone could be or have been experiencing and how blind the world is. And sometimes all they really need is someone to talk to, but sometimes we don't see how they need our help. And sometimes, it takes them just enough to realize that maybe they're not worth it. I think this book is reaching out to us as well, similarly to how Hannah tried to reach out but didn't succeed.

This is a wonderful book, and even better if you listen to Hannah's audiotapes on youtube. It's a huge eye-opener, sometimes we think we already know, but we have much more to learn about. It could really change your perspective on things and I think that it's worth your time reading it.