Thirteen Reasons Why - by Jay Asher

This story is set in a high school in America. It is a young adult fiction.

Clay Jensen is a high school student. When he returns home from school one day, he finds a brown package on the front porch addressed to him. He opens it to find a shoe box filled with 13 cassette tapes. He starts playing the tapes and is shocked to find out they are from Hannah Baker, his crush from school. Hannah had committed suicide two weeks earlier. In the tapes, Hannah lists 13 people/ 13 reasons responsible for her suicide. She narrates various incidents in her life involving these people which ultimately led to her decision. Clay has made it onto her list. But, he must listen to all of the tapes to find out how and why he ends up there. 

This book can best be summed up by one of the lines Hannah says - "When you mess with one part of a person's life, you're messing with their entire life. Everything affects everything." This is what happens with Hannah in the book. A series of unpleasant incidents and experiences in her life build up to a snowball effect. She feels helpless and inadequate. She reaches a point where her problems seem insurmountable, and eventually ends her life. The author shows how we can never know what a person is going through in his/her life,and how sometimes even a seemingly small incident/experience can prove to be overwhelming and push them over the edge. He also states that the reason for a suicide can never be pinpointed to a single event in the person's life.

Though I appreciate the point the author is trying to make, I had mixed feelings while reading this book. The characterisation of Hannah and the incidents which push her to suicide, didn't feel right to me. I can't quite put my finger on what exactly was wrong. But I felt something was a little off. I read along trying to make sense of what was happening in Hannah's mind but I just couldn't connect with the book. The idea for the book was good but it could have been better executed in terms of the story and characters.

However, this book did make me think about the many lives that are cut short by suicide. It made me question what makes a person give up on this wonderful gift of life. A question which has no simple, straightforward answer. I came across this talk on youtube which sheds some light on the subject: 

That's it till the next book.. happy reading guys..