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19/11/2013

Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Hannah Baker committed suicide. No one knows why, no one thought it had anything to do with them. Little did they know, it did.

Clay Jensen finds a package waiting for him containing 13 tapes. He had know idea what they were or who they were from, so as he starts to listen to them, he realises that each tape names a person who was part of the reason why Hannah Baker killed herself. Hannah explains in each and every tape who the person was and what they did to make her end her life.

I thought this concept was such a crazy idea at first, I love all books that cover depression and suicide because of personal reasons, it's nice to know that there are other people out there who went through what I did. I felt really bad throughout the whole book for Clay, imagine what it must be like listening to the person you cared for so much tell you why you were the reason they killed themselves, it must have been so horrible for him. But I think the way it was executed didn't come across as painfully as it should have. I didn't cry, I wasn't close to crying and you'd think a book like this should bring out that emotion from within you, but it just didn't. I did care for Clay, and I did think it was sad and some of the topics covered in this book were just heartbreaking, but the way it was written didn't make me FEEL like it should have. For example, if you were to talk about rape, you wouldn't be like 'yeah then he raped her and it was so sad, it was horrible, i didn't like thinking about it, it's sad, it sucks', where's the emotion in that? That's what most of this book was like, something bad would happen and Clay would be like 'this is making me upset' ... NO REALLY?? I wouldn't have guessed it!

Another thing I disliked about this book was the way it switched from Hannah talking on the tape to Clay's point of view every few pages, it wasn't like one chapter is Hannah and the next is Clay, it switched all the time, and sometimes it was confusing, it didn't flow really well.. I had to keep flicking back to remember what was going on and who was talking.

I think the idea of the tapes was just horrible, but I could understand it. Hannah wanted to make everyone feel like shit because they made her feel like shit. It was kind of like revenge, I'm not saying it was a good thing, and doing that was probably the worst thing she could have done (other than kill herself of course) but I can see where she's coming from.

Overall, reading about what happened to her and how everyone fit together was interesting, and I did finish the entire book, but it didn't captivate me, I didn't connect with the book emotionally and it wasn't executed as good as it could have been!

1 comment:

  1. I loved this book! For me, this was one of the best book's of the year. I truly was captivated by Hannah's story, and I think this book could be really important for young adults. Sorry you didn't enjoy it all that much.

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