Book Report #58

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

I became a fan of Jay's when he led my writers' conference workshop called Create a Buzz. Naturally I had to read his debut novel. Thirteen Reasons Why is young adult fiction dealing with suicide and is written in a unique format.

High school student Hannah Baker mails a box of tapes to a student at her school right before she kills herself. This student is involved in a story that Hannah tells on the first side of the first tape. On the opposite side is another story about another person that Hannah knew. The same is true for all the tapes, resulting in thirteen stories. Once the student has listened to all the tapes it is his job to pass the box on to the student in the next story and on it goes until thirteen lives are changed forever.

I suppose the point of the tapes is that Hannah will have explained how each person played into her decision to kill herself in the hopes that it will show people how the little things they do can really affect others. But I can't help thinking that Hannah was too weak and the things that led to her decision were actually pretty ridiculous. Furthermore, I was left believing that I was a freak for never having even gotten to third base in high school. Was everyone getting drunk and having sex? God, I was a geek!

General consensus: I am so confused.