Not a Love Story:

Thirteen Reasons Why Book Review

By: Julia Cory

Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why is not a happy book where everyone loves everyone.  This book is a realistic fiction which could also be qualified as an adrenaline fiction novel.  It’s about a girl named Hannah Baker who decides, after thinking about it for a long time, to take her life.  But, she is not going to go without letting the people who made her do this to herself know the reasons.  She picks out 13 people who have made her make this life choice and makes 7 tapes front and back; each side is dedicated to a different person. 

“The same shoebox that sat on my porch less than twenty-four hours ago; rewrapped in a

brown paper bag, sealed with clear packing tape, exactly as I had received it. But now addressed

with a new name. The next name on Hannah Baker’s list. “Baker’s dozen,” I mumble. This I feel

disgusted for even noticing it.” (Asher 1).

Everyone must listen to every tape and then it is there job to pass the tapes on to the next person on the tape.  Chances are the people on the tapes have no idea what they had done to this girl until they listen to her reasoning.  Some are far worse than others.  This novel takes place after Hannah has already committed suicide and follows a boy named Clay Jensen who received the tapes; therefore he is one of the reasons.  He cannot for the life of him figure out why he is on her list because he had the biggest crush on her for years and she barely even noticed him, aside from one night at a party, but that was it.  It switches off between his thoughts and Hannah’s voice on the tapes.  This makes for an interesting story line because while you read the part that is Hannah talking you don’t know what Clay is thinking until he cuts in with his thoughts.  

“Ready for this, everyone? Our sweet little Miss Crimsen told this guy, and whoever else was standing within earshot, that I’ve got a few surprises buried in my dresser drawers.”

“My breath stops like I’ve been sucker punched in the stomach. She made that up! Courtney completely made that up.”

                “And out of the corner of my eye, I watched Tyler Down start walking away.” (Asher 114).

This book is a book that you have to read all at once because it is too hard to put down once you’ve started. 

                Thirteen Reasons Why is a book that will make you look at the way you live and the affect you may have on others.  It is the kind of book that will make you re-evaluate your life and will make you want to be more kind to others.  Jay Asher does a good job of reiterating the long lost saying of ‘treat others the way you want to be treated.’  Asher also hits on the terrifying, but prevalent subject of teen suicide.  If anything, it shows teens, who read this novel, how they can do their part to prevent their piers from making the same choice Hannah did.  The only thing Asher did not show in this book is Hannah’s parent’s side to this.  They touch on the fact that they didn’t pay much attention to her, but readers would have liked to see their reaction to her choice to end her life.  Thirteen Reasons Why is a game of dominos… one domino falls and the rest just keep collapsing until all of them are down and the game is over. 

I give this book 4.5 out of 5 stars only because I wanted more.  There could have been more detail and the characters could have been more developed if Asher would have made the book a little bit longer.  I would have also liked to see the after effects.  Clay hears his part to her story and then the book is like over.  It still gives his reaction and it is a very powerful part in the novel, but in my opinion, Asher could have done more with it.  Thirteen Reasons Why is a game of dominos… one domino falls and the rest just keep collapsing until all of them are down and the game is over.  Overall, this book is outstanding though.  I love the plot and the writing style, it keeps you interested throughout the whole novel and the meaning behind it is one that every student should learn. 

'Readicide'

Based on the facts stated in Gallagher’s Readicide, I don’t think schools should teach literary fiction so exclusively. It really is making kids not like to read.  I know for example I hated reading until the end of junior year, which is crazy because I love it now.  I hated it because of the books we had to read in school, none of them thrilled me so I just assumed all books were like that.   And to this day I still don’t read the books we are supposed to read for school, instead I would rather read a book that I want to read so I am not wasting my time on a book that is not appealing to me.  The only exception in my opinion is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.  We read this senior year and it was actually a really good book but I know for a fact a lot of schools don’t have this book in their reading curriculum because it is very controversial.  I definitely think that genre fiction should get mixed in to the curriculum for high school reading especially freshman and sophomore year because that is when they are really beginning to read higher level books.  I don’t think anyone should tell someone what they have to read so I think the best effect would be to make all assignments a “choose your own” kind of deal.  Maybe have the teachers give the students a list to choose from that goes along with the topic they are going to be learning about.  If you think about it, every book has a meaning of some point.  You may have to look a little more for one in some books, but you will be able to find a lesson in any novel. I think this is so worth it though because loving to read is something that will be so helpful later in life and if it is acquired at an earlier age it will just be better in the long run. 

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