Review Detail

Short Synopsis: Hannah Baker commits suicide. A week later Clay Jensen gets a box filled with twelve casette tapes each side labeled 1-13. These tapes are Hannahs explanation and her list of blame. What these 13 people did, said or in Clays case, didnt say are Hannahs 13 Reasons Why.

History: This book came upon me in the 5th grade. I remember it pretty well actually, it was a recommendation from my ex best friend Heather. I've been reading big books since about 2nd grade. Harry Potter was all I would read from 2nd to 3rd grade and a bit into 4th. My grandma would actually check my bookbag for books and take them out if she found any because the teacher would complain that I didn't pay her any attention, only my books. Sad right? A little bit I would say. But since the day Heather read Th1rteen R3asons Why and told me that I should read it too, I fell in love.

A Little Snip:
A shoebox-sized package is propped against the front door at an angle. Our front door has a tiny slot to shove mail through, but anything thicker than a bar of soap gets left outside. A hurried scribble on the wrapping addresses the package to Clay Jensen, so I pick it up and head inside. I take the package into the kitchen and set it on the counter. I slide open the junk drawer and pull out a pair of scissors. Then I run a scissor blade around the package and lift off its top. Inside the shoebox is a rolled-up tube of bubble-wrap. I unroll that and discover seven loose audiotapes. Each tape has a dark blue dumber painted in the upper right-hand corner, possibly with nail polish. Each side has its own number. One and two on the first tape, three and four on the next, five and six, and so on. The last tape has thirteen on one side, but nothing on the back. Who would send me a shoebox full of audiotapes? No one listens to tapes anymore. Do I even have a way to play them? The garage! The stereo on the workbench. My dad bought it at a yard sale for almost nothing. It's old, so he doesn't care if it gets coated with sawdust or splattered with paint. And best of all, it plays tapes. I drag a stoll in front of the workbench, drop my backpack to the floor, then sit down. I press Eject on the player. A plastic door eases open and I slide in the first tape.

Dun Dun Dun!
Sorry, Just couldn't help myself ^_^

My Take: The first thing I noticed about this book was...wow this is deep stuff, the writer must really be a very thoughtful and amazing person. And the second thing I noticed is that this story is addictive. Maybe a one, two day read tops?

Let me just say that I LOVE Clay. I would have been all over him if I was Hannah. (but I'm not *sigh*) He was very sympathetic and true to her and I mean putting him on her tapes is harsh to me. You hear you're a reason for someone killing themself and you're supposed to be happy? I don't think so. She should have just sent him a letter saying how much she needed him and how she really liked him. Not put him on a tape with other people who ruined her life. So mean D:
Some of the stories of the people that started it all made me want to cry. Especially since on involves rape, and another one has a creepy guy who stalks girls and takes pictures of them from outside their bedroom window, and to me this book is a great example of how you're judged and not trusted because of your past. A few wrong relationships and mistakes and everyone in school thought Hannah was a whore. And that's how the snowball effect started.

"I wanted people to trust me, despite anything they'd heard. And more than that, I wanted them to know me. Not the stuff they thought they knew about me. No, the real me. I wanted them to get past the rumors. To see beyond the relationships I once had, or maybe still had but that they didn't agree with.—Hannah Baker"

Being in highschool I know exactly what it's like to be judged and torn apart for your past or through what people THINK you're like, not what they know. I'd recommend this to anyone and everyone. So if you have the chance to read it, pick it up. Who knows, it might teach you a lesson or two.

"If my love were an ocean,there would be no more land.
If my love were a desert,
you would see only sand.
If my love were a star-late at night, only light.And if my love could grow wings,I'd be soaring in flight.
—A Poem from 13 Reasons Why"