Diy's Books List: [Review] Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Publisher: Razorbill
Published: October 2007
ISBN: 9781595141712
Pages: 304

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.

A shoebox-sized package is propped against the front door at an angle.

First of all, there are seven cassettes, with two sides in six cassettes, and with each side, one secret revealed.

This is the second suicide book I read, and believe me, I wasn't happy when I read either of both. Like every other book, it has stories, but this one has thirteen no less. It was all centered in one girl, a new girl in town, Hannah Baker.

She was pretty, she was new, so people wanted to know about her. But that was not an excuse to make stories about her, and didn't care whether it wasn't true. Rumor, like a snowball, kept rolling and rolling until it was too big for one person could handle. So she was crushed by it.

Clay and Hannah told the stories alternately, Hannah with the cassettes, and Clay with what little he could recall about her. Clay was in love with her, but he was so shy, and so scared to go and talk to her, in front of other people at least.

He, like every other boys or girls who listened to those tapes, broke whenever one ended and started another. He hated those people on the list, including himself for what he did to her, even when he hadn't yet heard his story.

This book tells me that what we said to other people about someone, some gossips we passed on to the next person, is affecting that someone, badly. I always heard people say, that words sting, or words are sharper than a knife, you could kill people with just words, and I always know, that it is true.

“No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push it just the same.”

I've never had a mental breakdown before, so I personally didn't understand why she did that thing with Bryce. And to be honest, I didn't really get her feeling, or Clay's. I understood it, but I didn't really feel it. She was angry. Angry at other people who always make speculations about her, angry because they believe in rumor without bother asking her the truth, angry because they even act on it. She was angry because she was afraid too, afraid that she couldn't even feel like herself because of the rumor.

While Clay was pretty much a coward. He was afraid that the rumors were true. And he was afraid he'd be disappointed, but it was already too late. The only thing he could feel now is regret.

It was a good book, but not enough to satisfy me. But regardless, it's good.