Thirteen Reasons Why

Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Publisher: Razorbill, an imprint of the Penguin Group (2007)
Genre: young adult, contemporary fiction, suspense
Pages: 288

Description

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 Hanna Baker—his classmate and crush—who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons 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 first-hand witness to Hannah’s pain, and learns the truth about himself—a truth he never wanted to face. (from cover copy)

Reaction

When you start this book, be prepared to offer up the rest of your day. This is not a book to be read in short snippets, between having a life. This book will keep you occupied until you finish it.

This book is a very quick read, partially because it's a fairly short book, and partially because the pacing is so quick. You follow Clay as he reacts to Hannah's tapes. Every one gets you closer to her suicide, and with each one you keep wondering: what did Clay do to make it on her list? It's not a static book, because Hannah has included a map to key locations in her narrative, and Clay wonders to each location as the story unfolds, giving you a look into Hannah's world.

The book is told in alternating narratives, slapped right on top of each other: Hannah’s, through the tapes, and Clay's. They overlap, they comment on each other, and they twist around until the truth comes out. And the truth isn't exactly what you'd expect. At times, this book can really get to you. Suicide is always a rough issue to read about, and this book doesn't at all glorify it. Since you know how it ends (at least for Hannah) from the very first page, there's an overlaying sense of sadness. You want Clay to help Hannah, but you know it's already too late.

Design

I’m kind of meh on the cover. It’s not bad, but it’s not as powerful as the story is, and it didn’t really draw me in. Without knowing what the book is about, it looks like it could just a fluffy teen romance. The title gives you some clue, but from across the room you wouldn’t guess.

However, the cover jacket itself is amazing, because if you take it off the book, the inside of the cover is printed with the map Hannah included with her tapes. I didn't realize this for awhile because I originally got this book from the library, but it really improved my opinion of the cover.

The interior is interesting. It uses the symbols for pause, stop, play, etc, as part of the text. At first, it’s a bit distracting, until you realize that the symbols are actually part of the narrative, not just section breaks.

Hannah’s story is told in italics, and Clay’s in normal text, so it gets a bit confusing sometimes. However, you adapt to it pretty quickly, and I’m not sure how they could have done it better.

Final Rating

5/5. Great voice, great suspense, really a wonderful read.