13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several 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.

By the end of the book I felt that I knew Hannah, even though her voice was just noise on a bunch of tapes. For my purposes, she was the main character to me, because the story wasn't about Clay at all. It could have been told by any one of the thirteen people on those tapes, but Hannah would have been the same. I really ended up loving Hannah's personality and wishing that more people had played a part in her death so the book could keep going. However I did not like how weak she was, how she didn't beleive in herself and felt no one cared. If she would have looked around she would have realized that although tere were those that did not care, alot of the people around her did. As a whole though, I really felt Hannah's character was believable and I really wanted to get to know her more.

There always has to that one character in a book that you can't stand right? Well, Clay fits that description. I really didn't like how Clay was not described. The whole story was Hannah, Hannah, Hannah but Clay kind of got left out, and you didn't really get a good look at Clay's personality. He also really annoyed me when he was arguing with the tapes. We all know that it would be way easier to get over Hannah if he would stop contradiciting everything she said. I really wish Jay Asher would have let the reader get more insight towards Clay's personality.

I really haven't read any books like Thirteen Reasons Why. I am sure there are some out there, but I think this book had an amazingly original plot. I really was never bored reading this, even though there was no action involved. I almost skipped right to Clay's tape, read that chapter, and then went back and read what I skipped. The suspense was driving me insane, I just wanted to know, but I waited it out and when I finally got to Clay's tape it was that much more satisfying. Clay's story really shocked me, his reason for being on the tapes was really not what I expected and I was really happy that the reason was different then what I was expecting. Overall I think everyone should read this book because it was really amazing and everything is so freakin realistic!

My Rating: 4.3