Review of THIRTEEN REASONS WHY by Jay Asher

Review of Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

(Contemporary Realistic Fiction Category)

           1. Asher, Jay. (2007). Thirteen reasons why. New York: Penguin Young Readers Group.

2. Plot Summary: Clay Jenson receives a mysterious package on doorstep with his name on it. After opening it, he discovers seven cassette tapes, thirteen recordings in all. Clay must first find a device to play the almost obsolete tapes in order to begin solving the mystery. As he begins listening to the tapes, he realizes they are from Hannah Baker, a classmate of his, and his crush, who had just committed suicide only two weeks earlier. The tapes reveal Hannah’s thirteen reasons why she decided to take her own life through stories that involve all of the people on the tapes. Clay, who is the fourth person to receive the tapes, has no idea who else is on Hannah’s list, and he must continue to listen if he wants to hear how he played a part in Hannah’s decision to end her life.

3. Critical Analysis: Author Jay Asher does a flawless job of interweaving all of the characters’ together. It plays out almost like a game of Six Degrees of Separation. Each one of Hannah’s tapes and stories build on each other, revealing how she deems each person responsible for her tragic decision to take her own life. As a reader, I found myself going through the same emotions as Clay – frustration, desperation, pity, remorse, anger…leaving me with what I suspect to be the impression that Asher had intended. This is definitely a novel that will stay with its readers long after the final words are devoured.

The narration goes back and forth between Hannah on the thirteen tapes, (which Clay dubs as “a Baker’s dozen), and Clay, alone with his thoughts as he listens to them. There is a small amount of interaction that Clay has with other characters that Asher has written in, allowing the reader to come up for a bit of fresh air. The novel, while mostly heavy in content and thought, is written in a series of flashbacks narrated by Hannah, so there is some sweet, tender and comic relief within her life stories. The overall themes dive in to bullying, silent suffering, and crying for help when no one seems to be listening. The stories Hannah tells of her mistreatments in life are gut wrenching and painful to hear, but if they weren’t, the novel would not have been as effective. The use of the cassette tapes in a novel that is set in today’s ever-changing world was an interesting choice. Asher expressed that he wanted to use an older piece of technology and make the characters acknowledge it because if he had have chosen a more modern type of media for Hannah’s voice, it would have changed by the time the novel was published, decreasing the relevancy of the story as time goes on.

A website dedicated to the realistic novel, www.thriteenreasonswhy.com, contains multiple reviews by teens regarding how this book saved their lives and gave them new perspective. That should be one of the goals of realistic fiction – to give new meaning to and outlooks on subjects that arise in everyday life, even if they are not ones people want to think about. One teen, Dianna, writes, “When a book actually affects the way you breathe, you know it is powerful. When a book changes the way you look at life, you know it is spectacular. Thirteen Reasons Why is that book.” Maya states, “This book changed the way I look at the world…at the people around me. … It teaches the reader to be careful about what they do and how they act. It can also help those in a similar situation, or those who know someone suffering.” As an adult reader, I can say without a doubt, that I gained insight in to the world of bullying and how things that may seem miniscule to many are not to others.

By using narration given by two characters, the author is able to relay two different perspectives, helping the reader to see that both Clay and Hannah are both victims in different ways. The reader will be left wondering who is the antagonist and who is the protagonist. Most of the other characters in the story, expect for Tony, Clay’s classmate who has a cassette tape player that Clay uses, are all developed and described through Hannah’s retellings and Clay’s personal thoughts. So, the perspective is a bit one-sided. As readers, we never get to hear the other “instigators’” thoughts and feelings on Hannah’s perception of their bullying; however, the story would not have the same emotions and meanings if Asher had have written the other characters’ sides of the story.

The use of the constant questions within the narration of Hannah’s tapes are very effective because the culminating question is “Why?”. This novel does not make teen suicide look pretty or glamorous, but it views and describes it for what it is – tragic and a sad reality. Teens and adults will be impressed with Asher’s ability to describe Hannah’s decision in a realistic, respectful way. In a review by Kirkus, the novel is described best as “Well-reasoned, articulate and succinct, with a refreshing morality and a true sense of the value of self-worth.” That is exactly what readers can expect from reading Thirteen Reasons Why.

References

Thirteen reasons why by Jay Asher. (2007). Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jay-asher/thirteen-reasons-why.

Thirteen reasons why. The Penguin Group. Retrieved from http://www.thirteenreasonswhy.com/