Monday, March 27, 2017

Thirteen Reasons Why written by Jay Asher






What would happen if you were a high school student and heard that a classmate had committed suicide? Also, what if you have received cassette tapes by someone explaining why you were a reason they had committed suicide?
Thirteen Reasons Why written by Jay Asher, is a fictional story about a boy named Clay Jensen who received cassette tapes and a map. On the tapes that were made by a classmate of his, Hannah Baker, who committed suicide. Before Hannah died she sent out thirteen cassette tapes but on those thirteen cassette tapes, Hannah Baker explains about certain events that had occurred that led her to commit suicide. Before Hannah passed away, she sent the tapes out to all the people whom she blamed her decision to commit suicide.  Along with the cassette tapes, Hannah also sent out a map so people would know which places she was referred to in her tapes.
When Clay Jensen received the first set of the tapes and the map from someone, he decided to travel around town, while listening to the tapes, visiting the places that Hannah explained the events that occurred and how she felt when they happened. During his little expedition, Clay constantly wondered about three thoughts in his mind; first, he wondered what he had done to Hannah that led her to commit suicide. Second, Clay was getting worried when Hannah was explaining what other classmates had done to make her feel depressed. Third he wondered when Hannah was going to mention him somewhere in the tapes on what he had done that led her to be suicidal. At the end, Clay Jensen met someone who he knows and received the second half of the tapes (there are thirteen tapes that Hannah Baker had made). Oh the irony!
 I enjoyed reading Thirteen Reasons Why because I think Jay Asher did a great job writing the book with a lot of emotion between Hannah Baker and Clay Jensen. For example, when Jay Asher was writing Hannah’s character, I could tell that Hannah was a lonely person who wanted to be accepted in the high school world. As for Clay Jensen, Asher wrote him as an average person in the beginning of the book until he was traveling around town visiting the places that Hannah Baker once visited while learning about the real person his classmates were outside of school. In the end of the book, I think Clay Jensen did become a totally different person based on what he learned hearing from Hannah Baker
In concluding, I came across this book after I saw that this book is going to be a mini TV series on Netflix and I thought it looked like an interesting book to read. Finally, if you like stories that are sad but love watching the story unfold before your eyes, I would recommend this book to you.
I promise you I tried to describe this book the best that I could without giving anything away, so if you are still confused to what I what I read, here is the link to the TV series trailer for Netflix.
Trivia Questions:
1)                    How did Hannah Baker commit suicide?
2)                    What did Clay Jensen do to Hannah Baker that she blamed him for to commit suicide?
3)                    Who gave Clay Jensen the rest of the cassette tapes?


Asher, Jay. 13 reasons why. New York: Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2017. Print.
"13 Reasons Why (TV Series 2017– )." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2017.

No comments:

Post a Comment