Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Series: N/A, Standalone
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Realistic Fiction, Mystery, Death, Romance, Book Club
Publisher: Razorbill
Publish Date: October 18, 2007
Rating: 3.5 Stars (Eh, Okay..)
Clay Jensen returns home
from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his
porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah
Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.
On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she
decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find
out how he made the list.
Through Hannah and Clay's dual
narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending
story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.
I admit it, before reading this book, I was really psyched about it because of the feedbacks from readers. But when I read it, the excitement was gone.
I didn't love the book, but I didn't hate it either. It kept me on my toes until it got to Clay's part, but then that's it. It was like I didn't feel anything throughout the whole book.
On the plus side, I really learned a lot from this book that I never knew would affect people in a huge way. But on the other hand, I felt like Hannah was just exaggerating. I also had difficulty telling whether Hannah was speaking or Clay.
Overall, I wouldn't really recommend this book, but I don't discourage it either. Anyway, if you would like to learn things about life, then you might wanna read this book. Happy New Year!
PS: There's a lot of wonderful quotes from this book!
“You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you
mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just
that part. Unfortunately, you can’t be that precise and selective. When
you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their
entire life. Everything. . . affects everything.”
“No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of
other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push it just the
same.”
"You can't stop the future
You can't rewind the past
The only way to learn the secret
...is to press play.”
“But you can't get away from yourself. You can't decide not to see
yourself anymore. You can't decide to turn off the noise in your head.”
“Sometimes we have thoughts that even we don't understand. Thoughts that
aren't even true—that aren't really how we feel—but they're running
through our heads anyway because they're interesting to think about.”
"If my love were an ocean,
there would be no more land.
If my love were a desert,
you would see only sand.
If my love were a star-
late at night, only light.
And if my love could grow wings,
I'd be soaring in flight.”
“You can't go back to how things were. How you thought they were. All you really have is...now.”
“It's hard to be disappointed when what you expected turns out to be true.”
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Another thing: I didn't see a banner for Thirteen Reasons Why, so I decided to make one for myself, and I'm sharing it to you guys! :)
Labels: 3.5 Stars, Contemporary, Mystery, Realistic Fiction, Review, Romance, Young Adult
