Jay Asher: THIRTEEN REASONS WHY

Jay Asher
THIRTEEN REASONS WHY
320 pages
Razorbill
ISBN: 978-1-595-14171-2

When Clay Jensen finds a mysterious package addressed to him on his door step when he returns from school, he doesn't know what to think of it, but when he finds 7 cassettes in it and starts to play the first he is shocked. The voice on the tapes belongs to Hannah Baker, his classmate who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah explains, that he is one of thirteen people to get these cassettes to listen to the thirteen reasons why she finally decided to end her life. That night, Clay takes a tour of his hometown to all the places Hannah leads him to, while listening to her story.

As I had mentioned during the read-a-thon, this book was awesome, but also hard to read. All the things that happened to Hannah, that she had to deal with!

Asher took care of getting into the minds of both Hannah and Clay. They are so different, yet they seem to connect so much through the tapes! While Clay is popular, a good student and tries to do everything he can to be allowed to speak at the graduation ceremony. Hannah, on the other hand, is the „new girl“ as her parents moved into town a while ago to be the new owners of a shoe shop. At first, she hung out with the two other new students, but soon things changed.

Over the course of 13 Reasons Why we find out what happened to Hannah and how seemingly innocent actions and words can cause great pain. Actions and words that would not do much to one person can seriously affect another person that already has trouble, pain or has been harmed otherwise in the past.

Asher’s carefully depicted voices of both Hannah and Clay make for a compelling and awesome novel that was hard to put down – and thus a perfect read for the read-a-thon.

Rating: 5/5