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jessiphillips's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
1.0
This book left me feeling slimy. đŹ
This book has the potential to be very dangerous to those (especially young adults, teens, who are the target audience) struggling with suicide. It offers no solutions and no hope for anything other than revenge. It does provide an interesting look at the drama of high school and how your actions can effect those around you. But I donât think the topic was dealt with in a helpful or hopeful manner. With delicate topics such as suicide, there has to be some tact and respect for those struggling with it and I did not feel like this book would be beneficial for someone contemplating their life, but could perhaps encourage their ideation.
This book has the potential to be very dangerous to those (especially young adults, teens, who are the target audience) struggling with suicide. It offers no solutions and no hope for anything other than revenge. It does provide an interesting look at the drama of high school and how your actions can effect those around you. But I donât think the topic was dealt with in a helpful or hopeful manner. With delicate topics such as suicide, there has to be some tact and respect for those struggling with it and I did not feel like this book would be beneficial for someone contemplating their life, but could perhaps encourage their ideation.
junemoonbaby's review against another edition
1.0
hate that i spent money on buying this stupid glamorization of suicide, what were you thinking teenage ash? the entire build-up just makes me sick each time i think about it and it's a wonder the show managed to make it even more messed up?? sike.
fannfran's review against another edition
4.0
Spännande och intressant. Men inte riktigt min typ av bok
judeandolin's review against another edition
1.0
1.5 stars. Full review (for the book AND TV show) can be found HERE.
Right off the bat, Iâll admit that itâs been many moons since I read the book, so my memories are a bit stale. But I can tell you one thing: it held me captive only because Iâve dealt with depression and wanted to see Asherâs depiction of this illness. So although I ended up disliking the book, one of the problems was probably that I read this as a (mostly) mentally stable 22-year-old rather than in my much-less-mentally-stable high school years. Then again, had I encountered this book in those darker times, I canât say for sure if it would have resonated with me, helped me, or caused me to believe suicide was a viable option.
I consider myself not easily moved by social cues, so I doubt a fictional character would have convinced me to kill myself, but other youngins may not be as resilient. I very strongly believe this is not a book for high schoolers unless they are mature, or unless they are planning on discussing their thoughts on the book afterward. Though the consensus will never be in, thereâs no doubt in my mind that this book glorifies the act of suicide. Hannah Baker, the main character, is a decidedly selfish individual and either ignorant or blind to anything but the nastiest or most careless acts of her peers. Clay Jensen, the awkward, caring, gangly love interest, is even worse. Hannah I couldnât stand. Clay I despised.
Hannah goes through the novel detailing every wrongdoing from her thirteen classmates/peers, and the reasons they are ultimately responsible for her death. Thatâs right: Hannah, in her last act of selfishness, displaces the blame of her own suicide onto the hands of thirteen high schoolers, who will then have to live with the knowledge for the rest of their lives. The reasons for these people being on the tapes varies greatly; some, I can understand how the acts were no doubt malicious (for instance, the photographer stalker who took pictures outside Hannahâs bedroom, or her first date where the guy insinuates to his classmates that they went way further than just kiss).
But ultimately, the tapes are a last act of pettiness: Iâm going to kill myself, so now youâve got to listen to everything mean you did to me so youâll feel bad forever; otherwise theyâll be released unto the world and everyone will know. Hannah never took the time to actually sit down and have a discussion with any of these people, mind you. Even the scene with the guidance counselor, where he asked pointedly if anything is wrong, illustrated this point. Hannah mumbled her way through a non-explanation, then ran out of the guidance office. When the guidance counselor didnât follow her and demand (for the tenth time) an explanation, she put him on the tapes.
The fact is that Hannah didnât want help. She didnât want to give an explanation to anyone, she didnât want to talk it out. She wanted to die, and she wanted to place the blame for that on anyoneâs shoulders but her own.
Now, on to the horrible Clay Jensen. Because beside the annoyance that is Hannah Baker, Clay is the second most intolerable aspect of this book.
Clay has a complex. To be specific, itâs a nice guy complexâpotentially the worst complex one can have. Clay received the tapes and starts them, and his first thought is, There must be some mistake. I had a giant crush on Hannahâsurely I canât be one of the reasons she killed herself!!!1!
Well, as I discussed earlier, nobody was really the reason Hannah killed herselfâbut thatâs beside the point. Because yes, Clay, regardless of how much you lubbed Hannah with all your heart, loving someone doesnât make them any less depressed. Being nice to someone doesnât make someone less depressed. Just because someone smiles at you and jokes with you doesnât mean theyâre not depressed. You get the picture. Clay repeatedly wonders why heâs on the tapes, going so far as to say he could have âsavedâ Hannah if sheâd only come to him. Honestly, I canât even remember the reason Clay ends up being on the tapes (again, itâs been a while), I just remember despising his attitude toward the whole thing. I do remember, however, that Clayâs chapter is completely disappointing, because we find out something along the lines of âYeah, Clay was a great friend and he didnât really do anything to make me want to kill myself, but he also didnât stop me.â
So, like, he was basically on the tapes so that we could have a sympathetic main character bear witness to everyone elseâs wrongdoings⌠All right. Wouldnât want to mess that up halfway through with a big reveal that the main character is actually flawed!! Clayâs seeming âperfectionâ killed the book for me more than Hannahâs insufferableness.
The book ended on a high note (sarcasm, mind you) because Clay realized the error of his ways and saw that one of his old friends, Skye, might also be suffering from depression becauseâI kid you notâshe wears baggy, unattractive clothesâŚ
Christ. Sigh.
Anyway, Clay decides to sit by her on the bus and be her friend, like the true messiah he is, because if he couldnât save Hannah he can at least save this poor, ugly creature.
So thereâs that. I really disliked the book. Iâm not sure I remember why I gave it 2.5 stars out of 5, because it feels much more like a 1 star to me after writing this.
Right off the bat, Iâll admit that itâs been many moons since I read the book, so my memories are a bit stale. But I can tell you one thing: it held me captive only because Iâve dealt with depression and wanted to see Asherâs depiction of this illness. So although I ended up disliking the book, one of the problems was probably that I read this as a (mostly) mentally stable 22-year-old rather than in my much-less-mentally-stable high school years. Then again, had I encountered this book in those darker times, I canât say for sure if it would have resonated with me, helped me, or caused me to believe suicide was a viable option.
I consider myself not easily moved by social cues, so I doubt a fictional character would have convinced me to kill myself, but other youngins may not be as resilient. I very strongly believe this is not a book for high schoolers unless they are mature, or unless they are planning on discussing their thoughts on the book afterward. Though the consensus will never be in, thereâs no doubt in my mind that this book glorifies the act of suicide. Hannah Baker, the main character, is a decidedly selfish individual and either ignorant or blind to anything but the nastiest or most careless acts of her peers. Clay Jensen, the awkward, caring, gangly love interest, is even worse. Hannah I couldnât stand. Clay I despised.
Hannah goes through the novel detailing every wrongdoing from her thirteen classmates/peers, and the reasons they are ultimately responsible for her death. Thatâs right: Hannah, in her last act of selfishness, displaces the blame of her own suicide onto the hands of thirteen high schoolers, who will then have to live with the knowledge for the rest of their lives. The reasons for these people being on the tapes varies greatly; some, I can understand how the acts were no doubt malicious (for instance, the photographer stalker who took pictures outside Hannahâs bedroom, or her first date where the guy insinuates to his classmates that they went way further than just kiss).
But ultimately, the tapes are a last act of pettiness: Iâm going to kill myself, so now youâve got to listen to everything mean you did to me so youâll feel bad forever; otherwise theyâll be released unto the world and everyone will know. Hannah never took the time to actually sit down and have a discussion with any of these people, mind you. Even the scene with the guidance counselor, where he asked pointedly if anything is wrong, illustrated this point. Hannah mumbled her way through a non-explanation, then ran out of the guidance office. When the guidance counselor didnât follow her and demand (for the tenth time) an explanation, she put him on the tapes.
The fact is that Hannah didnât want help. She didnât want to give an explanation to anyone, she didnât want to talk it out. She wanted to die, and she wanted to place the blame for that on anyoneâs shoulders but her own.
Now, on to the horrible Clay Jensen. Because beside the annoyance that is Hannah Baker, Clay is the second most intolerable aspect of this book.
Clay has a complex. To be specific, itâs a nice guy complexâpotentially the worst complex one can have. Clay received the tapes and starts them, and his first thought is, There must be some mistake. I had a giant crush on Hannahâsurely I canât be one of the reasons she killed herself!!!1!
Well, as I discussed earlier, nobody was really the reason Hannah killed herselfâbut thatâs beside the point. Because yes, Clay, regardless of how much you lubbed Hannah with all your heart, loving someone doesnât make them any less depressed. Being nice to someone doesnât make someone less depressed. Just because someone smiles at you and jokes with you doesnât mean theyâre not depressed. You get the picture. Clay repeatedly wonders why heâs on the tapes, going so far as to say he could have âsavedâ Hannah if sheâd only come to him. Honestly, I canât even remember the reason Clay ends up being on the tapes (again, itâs been a while), I just remember despising his attitude toward the whole thing. I do remember, however, that Clayâs chapter is completely disappointing, because we find out something along the lines of âYeah, Clay was a great friend and he didnât really do anything to make me want to kill myself, but he also didnât stop me.â
So, like, he was basically on the tapes so that we could have a sympathetic main character bear witness to everyone elseâs wrongdoings⌠All right. Wouldnât want to mess that up halfway through with a big reveal that the main character is actually flawed!! Clayâs seeming âperfectionâ killed the book for me more than Hannahâs insufferableness.
The book ended on a high note (sarcasm, mind you) because Clay realized the error of his ways and saw that one of his old friends, Skye, might also be suffering from depression becauseâI kid you notâshe wears baggy, unattractive clothesâŚ
Christ. Sigh.
Anyway, Clay decides to sit by her on the bus and be her friend, like the true messiah he is, because if he couldnât save Hannah he can at least save this poor, ugly creature.
So thereâs that. I really disliked the book. Iâm not sure I remember why I gave it 2.5 stars out of 5, because it feels much more like a 1 star to me after writing this.
rgoodhart's review against another edition
3.0
Didnât like this at all. I found the dual first person narration really hard to keep track of: having to attend to which font was being used was just too much.
What a depressing book. I confess I skimmed much of the second half so didnât necessarily discover what each of the 13 reasons was⌠but the ones I did read were either depressing or really unpleasant.
Definitely wonât be adding this to my school library after all.
What a depressing book. I confess I skimmed much of the second half so didnât necessarily discover what each of the 13 reasons was⌠but the ones I did read were either depressing or really unpleasant.
Definitely wonât be adding this to my school library after all.
lizzyslibrary_31's review against another edition
5.0
This is one of my favorite books!! I love it. I read it in one sitting :D It's one of those books that you wish you didn't read just so you can experience it [for the first time] all over again. It made me cry,smile,laugh.. this book was very inspirational to me. It teaches you that you really don't know what goes on in anyone else's life so before you judge or ridicule someone, think about what they could be going through.
Some people say Hannah's reasons are "stupid" but if you actually THINK about it, they aren't. It wasn't just one person making her miserable.Some girls like all the attention and insults from guys but some don't, just like Hannah. It's all about empathy.
There's only one thing I didn't like about this book:
Where are the parents??? yeah, they were mentioned a couple of times but come on. There were hardly any conversations with them.
Other than that, it's a great book and makes you think about your character and how you should treat others.
Some people say Hannah's reasons are "stupid" but if you actually THINK about it, they aren't. It wasn't just one person making her miserable.Some girls like all the attention and insults from guys but some don't, just like Hannah. It's all about empathy.
There's only one thing I didn't like about this book:
Where are the parents??? yeah, they were mentioned a couple of times but come on. There were hardly any conversations with them.
Other than that, it's a great book and makes you think about your character and how you should treat others.
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
4.0
"You donât need to watch out for me, Clay.â
But I did, Hannah. And I wanted to. I could have helped you. But when I tried, you pushed me away.
I can almost hear Hannahâs voice speaking my next thought for me. "Then why didnât you try harder?â
And that's why you can never understand women!
This is one of few books I have read because of its negative reviews. Some reviewers say that it glorifies suicide, now I'm an anarchist, and I simply have to read any book that promote such out-of-box ideas. I was disappointed. It does nothing of kind. There is a great number of dramatic moments and other quirks that you might expect from a book written for young adults and there are a number of childish characters just as you expect teenagers to be, but nothing glorifying suicide.
Still it is worth the read and the reviews are worth reading too. A lot of reviewers (including this one) seem to be trying to review the idea of suicide rather than book itself. Some have this whole 'she should have been stronger' thing - I have a problem with that 'should'. Does that mean she deserved what she got because she was weak? Is being weak such a crime?
Then, there are people who think she didn't have enough reason to kill herself. What is sufficient reason? Do I have sufficient reason if I get paralyzed throughout the body and am that way for decades? I'm sure a lot of people will think even that is not a sufficient reason. Those are the kind of people who make governments though, that is why Euthanasia is illegal in most countries. They always think that people should suffer what they themselves never have to suffer. What is sufficient reason is a question which is subjective - differing not only from person to person but also from time to time for same person. And I think the opinion that matters is that of the person whose life it is. Isn't it?
I think importance and preference we give to life means it can be put together with other such things - love, glory, honor, power, popularity, motherhood etc. They are all awesome at times but, they are often over-rated, they aren't always worth the trouble. Sex, on the other hand, is worth all the trouble.
There are people who will give instances of other people who have worst sufferings and yet survived. Guess what? Different people are differently sensitive and it is not their fault, it is all hormonal - no one has control over Serotonin production in their body and so no one deserves credit for maintaining or blame for not being able to maintain it. Seriously get some perspective!
Now if you are wondering what Serotonin is - it is happiness hormone which maintains blood balance and lack of which causes depression. See you didn't even know that!
To be honest, I believe a lot of people who are disgusted at sensitiveness are so, because they had built disgust as a shield to protect their own self from being sensitive. Because it is supposed to be a requirement to survive in this world.
As for Hannah, if you ask me she had more than enough reasons. I have seen people kill themselves for far les than that.
The last group are at least sympathetic to Hannah and so are likable, but they seem to be suffering from a fallacy - they think that they can understand Hannah just because they have been suicidal too. Not all suicides are same, or suffers in the same way. What they may feel or think is not same either, even if we take very broad reasons they are very different - some are simply feeling tired, others look at the world and think they can't live in it because of one reason or other, still, others just don't want to suffer anymore. To think every suicide is same is like saying everyone who can dress like a clown is as good as Heath Ledger.
And there are always reasons to kill oneself. Those who say suicide is an easy choice are right. At some point in one's life, reasons to kill oneself become readily available - it is for living that we need to find reasons. The negative thoughts are like a storm, they don't need your permission to blow you away. Our only chance is of holding on to things - family, Children, pets, values, anything; and if we are lucky, being held back. Hannah ran out of reasons - bad school, no friends or pets, problems in the family.
Now imagine yourself in just in such a world where people must hold on to each other to avoid being torn away by storms and suddenly you realize you are losing your grip, what do you do next? You try to get hold of things again, failing which you cry aloud, won't you? Trying to get the attention of others, so that some of them may take hold of you and help you get your grip back. So tell me, how come we still use 'trying to get attention' as something negative in case of depressed people? Isn't it the right thing for them to do, exactly the thing that should be encouraged? The mistake would be if they go out and just kill themselves. Hannah did repeatedly tried to get her grip again and failing to do so, called attention to others. It didn't work out.
Anyways, I don't think this book is written for depressed people. Depressed people might react positively or negatively to this book depending on their condition. No, it is for everyone, especially for others - it is about our social responsibility to each other. Suicide is always, at least, partially a social failure. Because society too has failed to hold the person back.
And where It comes to kids or teenagers, it is an entirely social failure. Because they are the responsibility of society at large, they can't look after themselves.
Most importantly, this is a kind of book that tells teenagers that there are other teenagers around them who are similarly discovering realities of the world and are sensitive to their actions - and so they have a responsibility towards each- other. Ideally, a positive one to try to take care of others, but failing that at least a negative to see their actions don't hurt their age-mates. It is a powerful theme not something we normally see in literary fiction. Finally,a golden opportunity to quote Waiting for Godot:
âVladimir: Did I ever leave you?
Estragon: You let me go.â
kalynnar's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5