Thirteen Reasons Why

All I could think as I progressed through this novel is that I have to stop reading YA books with all the teenage angst that is becoming so annoying. I know, I know, it is a novel about a girl who has committed suicide and has left behind tapes explaining the reasons why. So I knew ahead of time that this would not be a feel-good story. Maybe the real problem was that I kept waiting for “big” reason that put her over the edge. Hannah keeps mentioning the snowball effect and the pyramid of reasons she is building, but it seems like a molehill, not a mountain of reasons. I mean, do teenagers kill themselves because of rumors that are undeserved? Maybe but I just didn’t feel her pain in the way I expected.

And the biggest, most horrible thing that happened to someone didn’t even happen to Hannah. Instead it is an act that Hannah could have prevented but didn’t because she was having a pity-party in the closet. Then just a few minutes later, she could have prevented another tragedy but, again, she doesn’t. Granted this tragedy did not happen right in front of her, but it still was preventable if she had only made a phone call. I could see where both of these events could have pushed her into feeling suicidal on top of the crappy way she was already feeling, and that’s what I was expecting. You know, guilt, guilt, guilt. But instead, she’s so busy blaming the two individuals who were truly responsible that she pretty much glosses over her part of the blame. Absolutely those two other individuals were to blame, not Hannah but everything else in her story is so typical teenager that I could not relate to it as worthy of suicide. Hannah is whiny and wants us to believe that all the betrayals she has ever experienced are the reason she killed herself. She doesn’t ever confront anyone about their lies or their part in her undeserved bad reputation; she just quietly lives with it and then blames everyone else for her decision to die.

I actually agreed with her teacher in the end about her choices: confront or get over it. That’s probably not a popular opinion these days with anyone who would rather point fingers than deal with personal problems. But Hannah chose not to speak a word of her problems to anyone until the very end, and then when he didn’t give her the response she was looking for she walked out. Did she really think he would solve her problems and bring her back from the brink of committing suicide when she wouldn’t even tell him the whole story? Hannah’s expectations were totally unrealistic: make me feel better even though I’m not really going to tell you what is wrong.

Then there is Clay who didn’t do anything to Hannah but still has to listen to the tapes and wonder until his part is revealed why he is on there. Hannah could have let him know at the beginning of the tapes that he didn’t need to worry, that his part is not one of blame. Instead she lets him wonder and agonize for hours while he listens.

So no, I didn’t really like this novel but I didn’t hate it either. I kept wondering what would happen next, so it was never boring. It’s just that it never got to the “Wow, so that’s what made her lose hope and want to die” moment. Hannah never seemed devastated enough from her betrayals to take such a drastic step. So the story just did not ring true for me.
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I read the audio version of this book. Which was well done, all considering.

People have said that this is a book about teen suicide. It is. But half-way through the book, I realized that the narrator's death was the device he was using to write a story about teens behaving badly. That's what this book is really about--teens treating one another horribly. I had a lot of trouble with this book. I finished it. But, felt that there was so much that was just plain wrong with it. I don't read much YA, and this certainly fell into a very mature version of YA. I'm certainly not going to watch the Netflix version of this. Glad I read it because I think it's necessary for anyone who works with teens. But wow. Not a book that inspired anything; it only generated a lot of fear in me for our teens today. I hope their lives are far from what the teens in this book experience. ( )

I have really mixed feelings about this book. I totally support the cause of suicide awareness so I'm not being critical of the subject matter, but of how the author approached it. The whole book just rang false for me. It read like a smarmy potboiler, drawing the reader in through the anticipation of discovering what dirty secret would be revealed next that "forced" Hannah Baker to commit suicide. I also felt that the book was all about Hannah blaming other people for an act she committed herself. Discussions about depression and therapy never came up, which I think is a travesty for a teen book dealing with this subject matter. And it's hard to sympathize with a character who took all this time and effort to destroy not only her own life but so many others' as well. The whole concept of recording the tapes and mailing them out as a chain letter is sadistic and wrong. As I came to the end of the book I realized that the story the book should have been about was the aftermath. How do the people who received the tapes react to them? Surely they'll be changed forever, but what do they glean from the whole situation? Are they changed for the better or the worse? What do they think of Hannah now? I feel that story would have much more of a moral center and be more complex. This one was just one slow and steady descent into hopelessness. Oh and one more thing--what teenager in this day and age would use audio cassettes? That completely baffles me. ( )

Q: How did you decide on Hannah’s thirteen reasons?
A: I first quizzed my wife and my female writing partners about what high school was like for them. We spoke about experiences that, at the time, they didn’t think they’d ever get over – as well as some they never have gotten over. ( )

My all time favorite book! Would recommend to any teenager or young adult. Actually, to anyone. Its an easy read too! You just want to KEEP READING! ( )