Jay Asher's brilliant first novel is a moving, highly original story that focuses on a set of audiotapes made by a girl before she committed suicide, and which explain to 13 people the reasons why she decided to end her life. Told in a highly effective duel narrative -- alternating between the girl s voice and the thoughts of a boy who is listening -- this honest, poignant story reveals how other people's actions shape, and by extension can ruin, an individual's faith in people. Intensely powerful and painfully real, Thirteen Reasons Why reveals how brutal high school can be, the consequences of spreading rumors, and the lasting effects of suicide on those left behind
My Thoughts:
As I sit to write a review on Thirteen Reason’s Why I’m honestly not that sure on what to say about it. I really don’t know how I feel.
I will start off first by saying that this is a book that will be sticking with me, for a very long time I’m sure. With the book being about a girl who commits suicide and leaving these tapes telling why, how could it not? The format of the book is chilling and after listening to the short clips on the website, the effect was even more so. I felt like I could feel everything Clay was feeling as he listened to Hannah tell about her slow spiral down.
The biggest thing I don’t know what to think of though is Hannah herself. She recounts all the terrible things that have happened to her since her freshman year of high school, all the boys who thought she was someone she wasn’t because of what someone said about her, or because of a hot or not list she landed on because of a joke. I’m just going to say it, rip the Band-Aid off though: My problem with this book was that I didn’t like Hannah herself. I feel terrible saying this about a character who kills herself in the end but I just couldn’t connect with her and I had a hard time feeling that everything that happened to her was terrible enough to warrant ending her life.
Alright, take a deep breath all. *In and out*
That being said, this book hits hard on emotional levels. It makes you really, really think about the way you’ve treated people and what you’ve said about them in the past. As the book says: everything affects everything. I know that I will watch everything I say and think about people. You never know how it is going to affect them and you never know what they’re going through.
4 out of 5 stars.
1 comment:
Good review! Yep, this one was hard to read at parts, but then, I'm a sap for happy endings!!
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