Watermark Books and Cafe

“Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher (Razorbill, ISBN 9781595141880, $10.99)  

“I hope you’re ready, because I’m about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you’re listening to these tapes, you’re one of the reasons why.”  

Clay Jensen didn’t know what to expect when he unwrapped the package left on his doorstep, but he certainly didn’t anticipate a handful of cassette tapes, recorded by his late classmate, Hannah Baker, detailing the trickle of events that led to her suicide.  

“Thirteen Reasons Why,” Jay Asher’s debut novel (new in paperback), is a cutting narrative that probes into the crumbling universe of a teenage girl who only wants to fit in, and the petty betrayals of the peers she had hoped to call ‘friends.’ The story is unique in that while it is written solely in first-person narrative, the role of protagonist is embodied by both Clay and Hannah, the former as he tries to piece together the enigma of the girl he wished he had known better, and the latter via her aural transmissions through Clay’s headphones. The voice coming from the Walkman is punctuated by Clay’s reactions to her story, jarring the reader into realizing that the character of Hannah, who we are only beginning to know, is already gone, and that there can be no happy ending to her tale.  

The “Thirteen Reasons” in the book are all people who affected Hannah’s final decision in some way, the same people we all knew in high school: the ones who fuel the rumor mill by turning an innocent kiss into a scandal, the coveted “Miss Popular” who picks up friends as charity cases and dumps them on the pavement, and the worst of all, the nice kids who sit by and do nothing to stop the torment. Through her cassette tapes, Hannah reveals to Clay (and the others who received the package before him) how minor slights can go from pebbles being flicked to the final boulder’s crash.   

At once a compelling story, “Thirteen Reasons Why” is also a sharp look into the brutal world of adolescence and the violent impact it can have on a sensitive soul. Bullying, gossip, parental neglect, and even sexual assault are touched on as we, like Clay, try to unravel the “tight, well-connected, emotional ball” of peer cruelty that led a bright, happy young woman like Hannah to suicide.  

As a survivor of that vicious teenage world (and in memory of those who were lost), I would recommend “Thirteen Reasons Why” to all young people who feel trapped in the labyrinthine world of peer pressure and to anyone who has stumbled upon the tragedy of suicide and asked, “Why?”  

Review by Cat Connolly =^..^=