Thirteen Reasons Why

Definitely the reason why I decided to reread this was because of the show. and now that I finished reading this, I am excited to dive in to the show!

Actually, bought this book in 2015 and I just decided to reread it now. and I do not regret diving into the mind of Clay and Hannah. reading this again made me realize so many things that I missed when I read this a few years ago. One thing that really stood out was the main character is a girl. it made me realize how girls and women can be so sexualized even without doing anything. from the very first reason, it showed how Hannah was sexualized... it just never occured to me... with all the women empowerment, and fighting for equality going on, this book was already doing that ten years ago!

anyway, the book is, of course, amazing. the reasons, the characters, how it was written, how it was paced, how amazing that there are two narrators at the same time. I also love the fact that this book can be timeless. with cassette tapes being used by the character, it can definitely stay current. the book is ten years old, but they still made a show about it ten years after. therefore, it is timeless. I actually got an edition of the book with an interview with Jay Asher, and the reason he wanted to use cassette tapes was because he wanted to make stay relevant in whatever time it is. And I thought that was pretty cool.

i truly applaud the ingenuity of this book and how it spoke so much.

I love this book!

i read this book last year, and i did presentations on it. i find that even though the topic is really sad but it is an amazing story and it is very heart felt. truly amazing.

Reading Thirteen Reasons Why really makes you notice the signs in people like friends that may be facing suicidal thoughts. It puts you inside the thought process and the heart of Hannah. It also shows you how everything you do, no matter how small can dramatically effect someones life. Really made me think...this ones worth reading guys.

Oh. My. Goodness. This was such a great book! Why didn’t I read it before now? Shame on me.


As you’ve probably guessed, Hannah killed herself. What you (and the other characters) don’t know is why she did it. Until the tapes arrive. The stories that she shared are heartbreaking. Hannah refers to things as “the snowball effect” and that’s exactly what happened. There is no one specific event that caused her to want to take her own life. There were a compilation of many, many things that eventually weighed down on her.


The way this story was told was very original. I loved that Clay’s thoughts intermingled with Hannah’s stories. I really felt sorry for both characters. For Hannah, it was sad that she had to endure so much alone. For Clay, it was sad that he never found the courage to speak up, which might have been enough to save Hannah. As you read the book, you can’t help but think about your own life (especially your time in high school). What if that Senior Superlative spoof list you helped pass around in math class wasn’t a joke to everyone? What if that prank you thought was so innocent destroyed someone’s final chance of happiness? What if all those times you thought you should speak up but never found the courage to do so didn’t work out in the end?


I had so many connections to this book while I read. It was almost like reliving my high school experience with every page. It’s hard to believe this was written by a debut author, because the skill and talent are amazing. I really hope to read more from Jay Asher in the future.


Thirteen Reasons Why is a beautiful way of making readers think about their actions. Everything has a consequence, whether it’s positive or negative, and you realize this through Hannah’s story.

I highly recommend this book. There's a reason it landed on the NYT bestseller list and hung around for a LONG time!

I read this my senior year of high school, and I can still remember sitting on the swing outside my house and crying. This book has stuck with me, 4 years later. I love that Hannah made these tapes. Suicide is confusing, but maybe having the tapes makes it more understanding. Although, personally, I feel that it is a selfish act..but that's just me.
It's a beautiful book, really.

Pages: 288

Genre: YA/ Suspense

Publication Date: 2007

My Rating: 5/5 stars


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.

It seems that each time I get my hands on a book by Jay Asher, I finish it in two days or less. I don’t know why, but I’ll take a guess and say that his books are raw and honest. He says thinks just as they are.

A month ago I read The Future of Us and really enjoyed the book, but it was Thirteen Reasons Why that stole my heart.

Thirteen Reasons Why tells the story of Hannah Baker. A teenage girl who has committed suicide. But before that occurred, Hannah recorded a series of audio tapes in which she explained the thirteen reasons why she decided to kill herself. The main character, Clay, is one of the, but he doesn’t know what he did.

The book takes place over the course of one evening. Clay receives a box full of audio tapes and finds out that he has to listen to the tapes and pass them on to the next person, sort of like a chain letter, and if he doesn’t, another copy of the tapes will be released to the public, which would cause dangerous consequences for the involved. He listens to the tapes as he visits the places Hannah mentions in her tapes and discovers all the reasons why Hannah Baker decided to commit suicide.

As I read the book I felt sorry for Hannah, I related to the things she went through, and even cried a good deal of tears when the book reached its ending. And I because I felt like over the 288 pages of the book I had gotten to know Hannah a lot and had considered myself close to her. I listened to her woes and understood all of them. When the idea of suicide began to pop into her head, I wanted to stop her. To tell her not to go through it. To save her and convince her there was a lot to live for. I cried because I felt empty. I truly felt the lost of Hannah Baker. The author did so well portraying Hannah’s depression. It all felt so genuine. And the “snow ball” effect worked really well.

One of the major themes of this book was bullying. Hannah was bullied in many ways. Rumors were spread about her, people called her names, and they made her feel so lonely, so alone. They all gave her reasons to end it all. To give up. Even when some of the characters thought they were doing no wrong, they somehow contributed to Hannah’s reasons. It really goes to show that we don’t know how much impact our actions have on a person.

I loved every single scene of the book, but there were two that I like a bit better than others. Firstly, there’s the scene where we discover who the last person who caused Hannah’s dead is: her counselor. Hannah has given up in life, and this scene is pretty much her last cry for help. But the counselor didn’t realize then what Hanna was about to do. My other favorite part was the end. Clay had seen this girl, Sky, having a lot of the same symptoms Hannah had had (changing appearance), and at the end of the book he went to talk to her. We don’t really know what happens after this, but I like to think that Clay stopped this girl from committing a huge mistake. Perhaps the same mistake Hannah Baker had made.

I have never felt so connected to a character before. I have never related so well. It’s a weird feeling, really, relating and feeling for a fictional character, and yet it’s also somehow liberating. Even though Hannah might not be real there are teens who feel the same way she did. Helpless, lonely, lost. The cause of those feelings might be many, bullying, a dysfunctional family, or a hurtful rumor. Things that a lot of teens these days go through.

And there was a quote that touched me very much. A quote that made me break down. The quote is located on page 280. It is told in Hannah’s perspective and goes like this: “A lot of you cared, just not enough. And that…that is what I needed to find out.” This quote is heartbreaking and it is easily the best quote of the book.

This book came in 2007 and it surprises me that I haven’t picked it up until now. I have heard of it before, of course, and I was even aware that Selena Gomez is going to play Hannah Baker in the movie adaptation for it, but I haven’t had enough interest to pick it up. Thirteen Reasons Why really shows that we need to be careful what we say or do. You never know if you’re affecting someone or not. You need to open your eyes and help that friend who so desperately needs to be aided. This book is eye-opening, it has had such an effect on me, and I would recommend it to everyone! Gah, what was wrong with me? I want to keep gushing and gushing about this book, but that would be very annoying for everyone, I’m sure. So I’ll leave you saying that Jay Asher has become one of my favorite authors.

After Hannah Baker kills herself, a set of cassette tapes are sent to a list of thirteen people who are somehow responsible for Hannah’s death. Clay, a quiet boy who had a crush on Hannah, receives these tapes. Clay has
absolutely no idea why he received them or how he’s responsible for Hannah’s death. After taking his friend Tony’s Walkman, Clay spends the night traveling his town while listening to Hannah’s voice. And what Hannah says will change him forever.
Set in first person, alternating between Clay’s perspective and Hannah’s tapes, Thirteen Reasons Why tells you a huge message about life: that your actions, even if they seem perfectly harmless to you, could cause somebody else harm, and ultimately cause them to commit suicide. As Hannah says in Thirteen Reasons
Why, “I guess that’s the point of it all. No one knows for certain how much of impact they have on the lives of other people. Often we have no clue.”
I loved this book because it was written so beautifully and flawlessly in the way that Jay Asher switched between Clay and Hannah’s perspectives. Also, the main characters seemed so real that it made you think that you could actually talk to them, or change their mind, but in the end, you couldn’t. In the end, they
were only fictional characters. This was especially true when Hannah says, “If you hear a song that makes you cry and you don’t want to cry anymore, you don’t listen to that song anymore. But you can’t get away from yourself. You can’t decide not to see yourself anymore. You can’t decide to turn off the noise in your head.”
I also loved this book because it was so real. It controlled your emotions so well that this book made me cry. Lastly, Thirteen Reasons Why conveyed a message so achingly true that it changed my view on life itself.
I gave this book a five because I absolutely loved it. It’s so real mesmerizingly incredible, and beautiful in such a raw and deep way. It’s written in such a way that it makes you keep reading, and even when you’ve
finished it, you can’t stop thinking about it. I would recommend this book to everyone, teens and adults alike. Thirteen Reasons Why gives such a clear and moving message that should be heard and understood by everyone.

I loved this book so much. It was so sad. After I had listened to all of Hannah's reason I understood why she did what she did. A must read!!
Clay got the tapes. He listened and passed them on. The tapes were about why Hannah had killed herself, the thirteen reasons why. A beautiful book.