Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Clay Jensen is in love with Hannah, has been since they worked together one summer at the town’s movie theater. The problem is Clay had one chance to tell Hannah how he felt and he let it slip through his fingers. Now, in a turn of events Clay didn’t expect, Hannah has committed suicide and instead of leaving a note she has left cassette tapes. Cassette tapes to be sent to the thirteen people she believes contributed to her suicide, the reasons why her life was no longer worth living, and Clay has made the list.
As you can tell from any synopsis of this book you read, this is not a light-hearted book. It is dark and depressing, and if you’re unfamiliar with the darker side of teenage life, possibly a little unbelievable. What Asher does well is give us a secondary primary character to feel empathy for throughout this book. While Clay is, technically, or protagonist, this story is not about him. This is Hannah’s story, Clay just happens to be a part of it. What having Clay as the center of attention does, however, is give the reader an outlet that is more relatable. Hannah has already committed suicide before the book begins and so the reader needs another way to get to know her, to feel sympathetic towards her, and that way is Clay.
While it might not be the most sensitive of statements, it is sometime hard for people to be sympathetic towards teens who commit suicide. It was there choice to take their own life. High school isn’t the end of the world. They would have survived and had the chance to live a full life, etc… But, if you remember anything about being a teenager, your rational brain doesn’t really exist yet. High school, for all intents and purposes, is the end of the world, or at the very least, a part of the world that seems too difficult to get through no matter what’s on the other side. Through Hannah’s tapes Asher lets us see all the ways Hannah tried to save her own life. The people she reached out to, and the ways no one really helped.
The reader is also able to see Hannah through the eyes of someone who did care about her, Clay. And it’s through Clay that we can begin to see the “real” Hannah. The girl who deserved to be cared for. Asher has touched on a very sensitive, but timely, subject in our society, showing how powerful one rumor can be in a devastating chain of events, and getting us to feel for a character that needed intervention. I finished this book within a few hours. I couldn’t put it down. And by the last chapter I couldn’t stop crying.