Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher

Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Genre: YA
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 262
Date read: September, 2011

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

An amazing, exhausting and heartbreaking story. One of those books that you just can't put down because you need to know how it ends. Given the subject matter, it ought to be horribly depressing, but somehow it wasn't. Devastating, yes. Depressing, no. I can't understand why, but I'm glad, or it would have been much too difficult to read.

I liked the way the story was told - Clay's thoughts and actions interspersed with Hannah's story on the tapes. Definitely a book that told rather than showed, but for once it actually worked. The story wouldn't have been as gripping if we'd seen the events unfold as the happened - not to me anyway. In fact, it would probably have been a lot more depressing and frustrating that way, and might have meant I either wouldn't have finished the book, or would have given it a very low rating. Because the way I see it, the book isn't about Hannah. It's about Clay, and the other people on the tapes. They are the ones we are supposed to relate to, not Hannah. They are the ones whose actions we can learn from.

Well written and powerful book. I'm glad I've read it, even if it does leave me feeling emotionally drained.