Thirteen Reasons Why

by: Jay Asher

Published by: Razorbill

Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart

When I was a young adult, the literary world was shattered by the 1964 publication of I Never Promised You a Rose Garden and the 1972 release of Go Ask Alice. Both were important books dealing with mental health and drugs. Now, for the first time since these two novels there is a new book that should receive the same attention and accolades: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. Like its predecessors, Thirteen Reasons tackles a harrowing issue that is impacting young adults from coast to coast. In this novel, Asher tackles teenage suicide.

Hannah Baker has been dead for two weeks. She took a bunch of pills and died. That’s all her classmates really know. Having relocated from another town, her parents take her body and return to that unnamed location. No funeral leaves her classmates drifting and wondering what really happened to Hannah.

But Hannah didn’t just die. She made thirteen cassette tapes that illustrate why she wanted to die. Each tape names a person or event as to why life seemed so hopeless to the high school girl. Actually, Hannah makes two sets of tapes. One she leaves with a person she knows will give them to the media if the thirteen people on her list do not listen to them.

When the book opens, Clay Jensen has just received the tapes. Clay had had a crush on Hannah, but as young people often do, he never followed up until the two were at a party one night.

Thirteen Reasons Why is also unusual in that it has a double narration. Readers get to hear every word that Clay hears and is then privy to Clay’s reactions. Both voices are distinctive and masterful, especially given this is a debut novel for author Asher.

I found this novel haunting, unpredictable, and simply un-put-down-able. It’s an average length—288 pages— but is a fast read. And believe it or not, Thirteen Reasons Why has an uplifting ending.

Armchair Interviews says: This book is a must read for middle and high school students and their parents.

Author’s Web site: http://www.ThirteenReasonsWhy.com