April 2017: 13 Reasons Why (Novel Review)
Synopsis:
You can't stop the future.
You can't rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his classmate and crush--who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why.
Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah's recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.
You can't rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his classmate and crush--who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah's voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out why.
Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah's pain, and as he follows Hannah's recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.
My opinion:
First, Hannah's story upset me. I vibrated, cried, I was angry and desperate with Clay. I was afraid for Hannah, hoping that someone will finally opened her eyes to her ill-being, even though I already knew how the story would end ... with her suicide.
Then, The format on which we discover the story, with both Hannah's and Clay's point of view made this story really realistic and I was propelled in one character then the other.
Also, As I was reading this book and see the end coming, I was reading more slowly so I won't arrive to that critic point: the last reason and... the end. But, at the same time, I wanted to know what that last reason was... which reason was THE one that made Hannah do what she did?
Finally, Jay Asher approaches the theme of suicide, loneliness, teenage years with so much accuracy, lucidity and in an original form that puts us at the heart of the story.
It reminded me of how sometimes during my high school years, or even now, I was feeling so depressed that I was thinking about hurting myself.
I think everybody went through this... bullying.
People laugh at you for no reason (or a reason that they think is fair) and even though you make them believe it doesn't hurt you, it does.
It always does.
And some other times, without even noticing it, you are the one that hurt/ bully someone.
Because here, we can see an extreme case of bullying and how you can change or survive this, I absolutely recommend this book.
BONUS: Want to find Hannah's 13 reasons (original tape - before Netflix)?
