Review: Thirteen Reasons Why
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
My rating: [rating=4]
Summary:
Clay Jenkins returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Bakera–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.
Review:
I’m not sure where exactly I stand regarding this book. I found it fascinating in many ways, including bad ones—sometimes like a trainwreack you can’t help but watch. This story may not be for everyone, and I feel that it has the potential to equally fascinate some people, and alienate others.
Hannah’s character is far from being perfect, far from being a pitiful victim: her stunt with the tapes, all things considered, is actually a pretty cruel one, at least for some of the people involved. Did Clay deserve to hear all that—and wasn’t his being on the tape just as strong accusation as the others (although a more implicit one)? Was the girl with the stop sign more guilty than the guy who wouldn’t take no for an answer at first? Didn’t Hannah bring a lot of her problems onto herself, just because she didn’t react when she should have, didn’t confront people directly, and remained on the side doing nothing? What gave her the right to impose the tapes to those involved (and to those who weren’t, such as the one in charge of keeping the second set)
And yet, it’s also hard to judge her negatively, because nobody reacts to a series of events the same way as the person next door. Had I been in Hannah’s case, I would’ve confronted people much sooner, and not resorted to suicide; but that’s me, a woman with a strong personality when confronted to a lot of stressors, while others that can take me down will do nothing to another person. I don’t think we can judge suicidal tendencies on the account of “Hannah’s problems were too petty to justify it”: it’s not a matter of what’s petty or not, it’s a matter of how people live with their problems. What snowballed for Hannah wouldn’t have done anything to someone else; what would prompt that same someone else to suicide may not have had such an effect on Hannah.
Hannah isn’t a particularly pleasant character, due to her planning the tapes and how it looked like a revenge of sorts. At the same time—something we barely scrape over at the very ending—her actions might also have the potential to bring people to start thinking differently, considering how what seems trivial, little things to them could have tremendous influence on others. In any case, I found this book to be quite a thought-provoking one.