Saturday 19 April 2014

13 Reasons Why Book Review

Here it is, my first book review! ...and I'm nervous about this one. 

Book: 13 Reasons Why (2007) 
Author: Jay Asher
Amazon Link: Here






13 Reasons Why Book Review


An hour ago, I finished Thirteen Reasons Why, a book written by Jay Asher. I first came across this book years ago when I saw a fan trailer for it on YouTube. This book has been a book I’ve wanted to read ever since. I finally got around to it yesterday.

I really want to keep this review as less spoilery as possible but I’m not sure how my thoughts about this are going to come across. A little background knowledge about this book, it was published in 2007, movie rights were sold in 2011 with a possible Selena Gomez (NO) playing Hannah Baker and my copy is 288 pages. So it’s really not a long read.

The book is about a guy called Clay Jensen who receives a package on his front door that contains a bunch of tapes. On those tapes, a girl named Hannah Baker has recorded the thirteen reasons why she decided to kill herself. The tapes get sent to the people mentioned on the tapes in chronological order and then it is their job to send the tapes to the person who comes after them on the tapes, if they don’t, the tapes will be shared with everyone.

I’m going to be brutally honest about my feelings towards this book, in the first third of the book, I thought the reasons all sounded rather…petty. They weren’t nice but I don’t know I just wouldn’t have killed myself over some of the reasons that Hannah gives. Yeah, if a random guy put his hands on my ass without my say so – I’ve been to nightclubs often, I’ve dealt with this – I wouldn’t be best pleased but I’m wondering if this was Jay Asher’s intention. To start the book of with these minimal reasons to create what both Asher and Hannah refer to in the book ‘The Snowball Effect’.

Hannah talks about how all these people and what they have done or what they chose not to do has affected her in one way or another. She also talks about what she didn’t do and how that affected her. The book to me comes across with our main girl who is in desperate need for someone to save her, to tell her they care and the last few chapters are just heart-breaking because of this reasoning because she didn’t get it leading to her suicide.

The book is laid out so that it is told from Clay’s point of view and throughout the book, he is questioning both Hannah and himself – why me? Why has Hannah included him on the tapes? Clay listens to all the tapes as instructed and listens to how every person mentioned has made an effect on Hannah. A girl he had a thing for in High School but was always too scared to go for it.

Looking back on the book, it makes me want to read all of their perspectives. I want to read the guy’s reaction who made the list that started it all and how he feels now, I want to read how the girl who started out being her friend now feels and I want to read how Hannah’s teacher now feels knowing he didn’t help her enough. It’s eerie how it sits with you.

This is a book that I know I’m going to be thinking about for days but it’s also a book that I don’t know if I’ll reread it. That’s a lie. I know I will but it won’t be for a very long time. The book makes me question how many of my actions have created a snowball effect. Now, I don’t know anyone who has committed suicide – thankfully – but I also don’t know what I would do if I was Clay. If someone around me was reaching out and I just didn’t know it.

This book is truly amazing in the sense that it does make you question everything, the people around you and yourself. I highly recommend this book to anyone. It’s a book you won’t forget.

I give it a 8/10 and recommend this to anyone and everyone! 

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