Pages Flipping.

Recently, I went to the bookstores and saw this. The title caught my eye. Haha, I'm kind of slow to find this book (it's published in 2007). Wow, that was when I was 9..

Anyway, I really liked the unique way the story was told to us, by the use of a lot of dialogue, flashbacks and inner most feelings. Thirteen Reasons Why talks about the thirteen reasons that caused a girl, Hannah Baker, to commit suicide. Yes, she died. So.. my rating would be a 3.75 out of 5 stars.

Here's the summary (it's copied from Goodreads):

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.

Hmm... as I have mentioned before, the story differently. We can hear the thoughts of two characters simultaneously, that of Hanner Baker on tape and Clay thinking to himself while listening to the tape. I think it's quite unique. :)

I would have preferred a less gloomy storyline but that's what Thirteen Reasons Why is about. It's about the desperation of a girl, trying to find someone she could trust and someplace she could feel safe in. In the beginning of the book when Hannah's first tape was played, she was contemplating on suicide but could not bring herself to say it aloud. By the last tape, she could calmly say how she was going to attempt suicide. Her suicide was not in the spur of the moment, it was something she had carefully thought of.

I thought that Jay Asher breeched a very interesting, at the same time, saddening but realistic topic: teen suicide and its causes. I felt for Hannah. The way she felt so depressed, lost and hurt, with no one to turn to was simply heartbreaking. In her case, she met with cases of cruel jokes, invasion of privacy, backstabbing, hypocrisy etc. Everything started with the people around her spreading cruel and untrue rumors about her. The snowball effect, as mentioned in the book, has a devastating effect. One thing builds up over another and eventually the load becomes too much to bear. Snap. It made me think how a simple action or word can have a whirlwind effect on someone else, something that we perceive to be harmless could actually cut someone deeply.

However...

It seemed like Hannah was constantly alone, she didn't dare to trust people, she cut herself off from the world. Though she lists out the 13 reasons why she committed suicide, she doesn't list out the 14th: herself. I feel that reputation was bothering her too much. Reputation is just someone else's opinion of you, you can't change everyone's thinking. Was the reputation really that important? She felt that she could connect with Clay, but because of reputation, she chose to push him away... It's as if she's waiting for someone to reach out to her, but when they do so, she pushes them away.

I can't deny that Hannah didn't put some effort in trying to brighten her life, and to give herself hope. After all, she did try to write poetry to express her feelings. But the question is, why didn't she go to the school counsellor earlier? Why did she think of counseling as her last hope?

Hannah's quite a confusing character to me. The way she interprets the actions of others are really in depth too. I guess ignorance is bliss, sometimes. If I thought about the motives behind everyone's actions all the time, I might just go crazy.

I have to say that the counsellor was quite a... not encouraging one. Well, I guess that probably because that isn't his full time profession. ://

I guess the moral of the story here is to watch what we do or say to someone else and try to understand the people around us while we can... sigh.

To read or not to read? Well, I suggest that if you're kinda moody by nature then no. Otherwise, it's fine. :)

-Sheryl

Some thought provoking quotes from this novel:

Sometimes we have thoughts that even we don't understand. Thoughts that aren't even true—that aren't really how we feel—but they're running through our heads anyway because they're interesting to think about.

-Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why

Because when you're posed, you know someone's watching. You put on your very best smile. You let your sweetest personality shine.

-Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why

You can hear rumors. But you can't know them.

-Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why