13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher Review

So I read this tonight.. .because it has to be back at the library on Sunday. I have a huge list and Im trying to prioritize by when they disappear both arc copies (ereader) and the library books I have been picking up.. so its not a dont want to read because i want to read them all. Just a order im trying to get into.

This book follows a main character Clay as he listens to tapes from a now deceased Hannah, who commited suicide. The tapes tell of 13 reasons, each reason having a side of the audio tape to explain why the person on the tape is in someway responsible for her actions. He is to follow a map and listen to the tapes and then hand them off to the next person in the storyline.

Now I liked the story, it was well written, beautifully told and eerie in the since that I can see the mind workings of a teenage girl at the end of her ropes not knowing how to reach out and talk to people.

My only real problem with the book is, now to get slightly uncomfortably personal for me and for people that this is a touchy subject with. I have been on the recieving end twice of a ending of a life. My best friend in junior high killed himself and did it after a giant fight between us. I know that I was not the cause of it, but at 13 I didn't know how to process that information and had an extremely hard time with the fall out of his choice. I was broken for years. Then I met my high school sweetheart. We met the day he decided he was going to leave the state and commit suicide so as to not make any of his friends see it happen. He left the state and to my surprise showed up at the Denny's his group (my new friends) all hung out at once a week after we play fighted in the park. He later told me that he came back because he felt like he had to, that we were meant to be together. So we were... 6 years we lasted .. I had met him at 16.. I was almost 22 when we ended things. I hadn't been really ready for the whole end of dating, becoming a couple for life thing.. I really wanted to be but I wasn't and I sometimes wish I had been but looking back things between were fire and ice and I'm thankful for the time spent but am happy where I am now. But he decided to end his life 2 years to the day after our breakup. Even now with that anniversary coming up I still have a hard time convincing myself that it wasn't my fault. There was nothing I could have done to change things. So I know that life is hard enough without the weight of someone else placing the choices they make on you.

I can relate to the characters on both sides and understand the agony and hurt, the fear, the anger.. the wanting change but not knowing how to get there and feel connected to the book. It is definitely worth picking up if you can handle the subject and want a quick good read for a weekend night.