Review and commentary on "13 reasons why" by Jay Asher

Suicide is a serious subject that not a lot of people like to talk about. There are a lot of people who have lost someone to this sad act and it leaves us broken and lost. I’m sure most wonder if they were a part of the reason, why someone kills itself.

This subject is what 13 Reasons Why is about. A girl named Hannah Baker commits suicide. Everyone is left to wonder why she ended her life, and some of the people that affected her life get to find out her story. However as they listen to what lead Hannah to committing such an act, they also learn about each others flaws to get them on Hannah’s list.

First some information about the novel :

it is called “Thirteen reasons why”
written by Jay Asher
and published in 2007 in the United States
the Novel is really famous becomes many awards

Storyline

Clay Jenson returns home from school and received a mysterious package.

Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker. His classmate who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

She believes that she has no needs to live anymore.

Before Hannah dies, she had recorded tapes for the thirteen reasons why she decided to commit suicide.

The book is typical for Hannah's stories, she recorded on cassettes. In the novel, they are written in italic font for better understanding and the thoughts of Clay are printed in normal font. The author switches between the story of Hannah and the actual experiences of Clay back and forth. Moreover the reasons why Hannah committed suicide are getting more and more serious in the course of the book.

Hannah gave instructions to the first tape listener to pass down the tapes when he or she is done listening. ( → and now I'd like you to read out the first textpassage)

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them.

Clay spends the rest of the day and long into the night listening to Hannah's voice and going to the locations she wants him to visit. So he'll find out how he made the list.

So the novel Thirteen Reasons Why is narrated by two characters: Hannah and Clay.

The first person who played a role in Hannah’s death was Justin Foley. He was

the first kiss Hannah had. So she had a crush on him.

However Justin exaggerates the kiss he had with Hannah. Hannah was new to her high school and since Justin lied about his kiss with her, this created a negative impression about Hannah. Justin appears in the tape two times.

The second reason he appears is because at a party with Jessica Davis. He left ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

So the novel Thirteen Reasons Why is narrated by two characters: Hannah and Clay.

The first person who played a role in Hannah’s death was Justin Foley. He was

the first kiss Hannah had. So she had a crush on him.

The second reason he appears is because at a party with Jessica Davis. He left her in a room and Jessica got raped. Hannah was hiding in the closet and viewed the tragic event that happened to her “friend.” Because of Hannah couldn't do anything, she felt guilty for the rape.

The next reason, why Hannah killed herself, is Alex Standall.

He added on the reputation to make everything worse. Alex created a “Who’s Hot” and “Who’s Not”- list and Hannah is marked with the “Hottest Ass in the Freshman Class.” On top of the gossip with Justin, Alex decided to create the list where the whole school figures out. Hannah started to become the object of sexual harassment. Due to Alex and Justin, Hannah became to build a bad reputation at school.

Students began to create rumors about Hannah and the rumors increased until

Hannah wasn't longer able to handle it.

Jessica Davis, Alex, and Hannah were all once friends since they were new at the

school. However since Jessica was not under the hot section of the list, she was jealous of Hannah. Jessica liked Alex but thought he liked Hannah. Jessica and Hannah would be able to talk about different stuff, however Hannah was betrayed by Jessica. She believed that the rumors were true, therefore she starts to create a distance between herself and Hannah.

One day Hannah noticed that Tyler Down has been at her window stalking and

taking photos of her, while she was in her house. Courtney Crimsen, a popular student decided to help her.

So Tyler stole Hannah’s safety at home. On the other side, when Tyler got caught, the next day Courtney didn't talk with Hannah. Courtney wanted to keep her positive reputation ,so she acted friendly to Hannah.

Hannah was listed on Marcus Cooley’s”Who's Hot and Who's Not-list” . Marcus and Hannah were to meet at a restaurant but Hannah is there alone waiting for him. He showed up about half an hour later , because he thought they were just joking about meeting. When they are at the Diner, Hannah went through sexual harassment.

At the Diner, Zach Dempsey, was a witness and saw the whole confrontation between the two students. Instead of helping her, Zach made the situation worse.

Hannah’s hobby was to write poems. Through the poem, Hannah was able to express herself and reduce stress. Ryan Shaver, a member of the school newspapers shared one of Hannah’s private poem. He steeled the poem of Hannah’s and published it. Because of that, he took Hannah’s pride to write poetry away.

Clay Jensen, the co-narrator is the ninth one of the thirteen reasons why Hannah

decided to commit suicide.(--> so now i'd like you to read out this texpassage) This is the most significant section ,because Hannah could have survived from her pain. Clay had a secret crush on Hannah and she also fell in love with Clay. However, Hannah was unable to manage her emotions towards everything and acted cruelly to Clay. Unlike the other characters, Clay is on the list because Hannah regrets not being able to know Clay. On the other hand, Clay feels guilty not being able to be on Hannah’s side. At a school party, after Hannah kissed Clay and pushing him back away, if Clay did not leave, he kept believing that Hannah would have had a reason to survive. Clay goes through all the points that are listed on the tape to have a flashback of Hannah.

After the party with Clay, Hannah was walking back. Jenny Kurtz, (a cheerleader) spoted her and asked if Hannah needs a ride since Hannah is drunk. Jenny hit a stop side and resisted to contact anyone. Hannah got kicked out of the car and witnesses an old man getting injured and the death of a high school student peer.

One night there was an after party on Courtney’s house and Bryce Walker had invited her. She did not want to go to the party because Courtney was hosting it but then she decided to go as the last party she would attend. At the party, she was sexually harassed by Bryce. After this activity Hannah forced herself to conclude to commit suicide.

The last person who could help her,was her English teacher and counselor Mr. Porter. She hesitated to ask the counselor for help but then she went to him.

(--> so now i'd like you to read out this texpassage)

So you can see that,Hannah didn't easily discuss the events, which made her life miserable. However after the counselor asked questions, Hannah spoke up.she didn't gain any advice. When Hannah left the office because of anger, the counselor didn't stop her. This was when Hannah figured out it is the correct decision to commit suicide.

Through the tapes, Hannah expresses her pain, thoughts, and expressions

towards each person. She explains how each reflected a reason to take Hannah’s life away from her.

Through the tapes, Clay realizes that nobody knows what will happen to someone, therefore each person should be cared with love. At the end of the novel, Clay approaches to talk to somebody he met but never talked to. Clay is able to learn through the tapes.

The Main Characters :

Hannah Baker

Hannah Baker is an attractive and pretty girl with a long hair. She used to be a

ordinary new student until she had her first kiss with a boy called Justin.

Although all she did with Justin was a kiss, Justin spread a wrong rumor that

they did something more just a kiss.

Due to this rumor, her reputation started to fall and when Hannah’s friend, Alex made a list of the “Hottest Ass in the Freshman Class” and put Hannah’s name on the list, her reputation drastically fall down. Due to the rumor and the list, she became an outcast and many terrible incidents started to happen in her life. As Hannah baker is a normal girl with a weak mental state, she slowly thought about committing suicide. When she lost all of her friends and sexually harassed for the second time, her will to continue living collapsed and she made up her mind to commit suicide.

Clay Jensen

Clay Jensen is the narrator of the novel, who only has a good reputation, just like his handsome appearance.

In the novel, he is a student who is always polite and kind. Also he is such an emotional boy, who truly regrets Hannah’s death.

In the novel, he slowly and carefully approached to Hannah. And when she

rejected him, he cautiously stepped back for the next chance. However, there wasn’t any next chance, as Hannah committed suicide. So Clay regretted his hesitation, and recalled that if he had been more firmed, he could have saved Hannah.

Author

Jay Asher was born on the second of September in 1975 and he grew up in a family that encouraged all of his interests, from playing the guitar to his writing. He worked in various establishments, including as a salesman in a shoe store, in libraries and book stores. Many of his experiences had an impact on some aspects of his writing. Today he lives in Arcadia in California and is married.

“Thirteen Reasons Why“ is his first published novel and he got the idea for it at a museum. While talking an audio tour, he was struck by an eeriness of the voice in his ear – a woman who described exactly what he was looking at, but wasn't there.

I Choose this book ,

because it is sad, thoughtful, heartbreaking, and emotional at the same time! Hannah Baker gives you the idea of what can happen if rumours go their own way and what they can do to you. Hannah Baker just wanted to get her first kiss. And after getting her first innocent and sweet kiss, the boy who kissed her, tells everyone that a lot more has happened – that Hannah is a slut. And this is only the beginning of something which ended in a suicide.

i think that the reason for this book is to show that even little things that you do to a person, even if you don't realize what you're doing, you can really mess with a persons life. so like the moral to the story is to watch how you act and say to others because what you do can end up being positive or negative to that persons life.