Review and Recommend: 13 Reasons Why

Why do people commit suicide? I wish we could ask someone who has done it. In Jay Asher’s 13 Reasons Why Hannah Baker answers that question. She has 13 reasons to be exact. Hannah has been contemplating suicide for some time now. One day she went home from a party, defeated and upset, she decided to make a list of all the people who have wronged her in her life. She then went through to see how many of those people connected to each other like a domino affect. Those 13 people received a set of tapes two days after Hannah swallowed a handful of pills. The first person must listen to all the tapes and then send them to the next person on the list. If they do not send them to the next person a second set of tapes will be released to the public along with all their dirty secrets. Asher writes this novel with two narrators telling Hannah Baker’s story. Hannah Baker telling her story on 13 cassette tapes. And Clay Jensen, the ninth receiver of the tapes. Asher has a way of relating his novel to both men and women, girls and boys. He has said in an interview that before he wrote this novel he asked his wife and a few female friends to tell him about their high school experiences. The good, bad, and the stuff they wish never happened. He also took some of his own high school experiences to make up this 300 page novel. I would recommend this book to anyone. If you have ever thought of suicide, known someone who has, lost someone to suicide or none of the above. You will automatically relate to the main characters and feel their pain. Jay Asher’s 13 Reason’s Why.