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stindex's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Rape, Grief, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, and Suicide
concernedcitizen's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Rape
Minor: Car accident, Suicide attempt, Stalking, and Vomit
lay_kone's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Suicide, Grief, and Suicidal thoughts
ursa_arlo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Positives. I am not in the target audience for this book and haven't been for years but I can imagine that it's very impactful for someone in highschool. Especially in 2007 when this book was released as mental health wasn't discussed as much back then. I think this book strikes a nice balance between sending the message that small negative actions can snowball into much worse things for the people around you while also not blaming the people on the tapes for the decision Hannah took.
I love the stylistic choice of having the story be told through tapes. Clay reacting to them in real time -especially during his own tape- makes the story conversational. It highlights different perspectives on the same events that happen in Hannah's life.
Negatives. One thing that I miss that the Netflix series does better, (even though it sensationalizes suicide far more than this book,) is that this book does not show the fallout of the tapes among those on it. (Think of Jessica and the night at the party or the harassment Tyler endures because of the tapes). Ignoring 'the snowball effect' of the tapes on the people on them while making this snowball effect central to Hannah's argument feels misguided. Then again, Hannah is not a perfect character and was never meant to be interpreted as such.
Quote. I guess that's the point of it all. No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push all the same.
I love the stylistic choice of having the story be told through tapes. Clay reacting to them in real time -especially during his own tape- makes the story conversational. It highlights different perspectives on the same events that happen in Hannah's life.
Negatives. One thing that I miss that the Netflix series does better, (even though it sensationalizes suicide far more than this book,) is that this book does not show the fallout of the tapes among those on it. (Think of Jessica and the night at the party or the harassment Tyler endures because of the tapes). Ignoring 'the snowball effect' of the tapes on the people on them while making this snowball effect central to Hannah's argument feels misguided. Then again, Hannah is not a perfect character and was never meant to be interpreted as such.
Quote. I guess that's the point of it all. No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push all the same.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Suicide, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Car accident, Death, Body shaming, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Stalking and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Misogyny and Alcohol
shahad_086's review
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Suicide
creolelitbelle's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I knew how the story would end and Hannah's reasons, because I've already watched the Netflix show in it's entirety. The audiobook is done very well with Clay's confusion and distraught state whole listening and Hannah's emotions throughout telling her story. The book has landed on banned and challenged lists for years due to its topic of suicide (among other issues), but teens especially need to be openly discussing the issue. Teens contemplate, attempt, and even commit suicide often, and I appreciate Asher for using Hannah's voice to show how usually the cause is not one problem but the compounding of multiple life happenings.
The book mostly occurs all in one afternoon, evening, and night as Clay listens to the taped after finding them delivered to his house. He cuts in giving his thoughts on the events as Hannah tells her truths, and for me that added nuance to understanding who Hannah and all the people cast in her reasons are. I love how accurate season 1 of the show is to the book, except it plays out over more than one night. The show stuck with me, and the book will, too, in its own way.
The book mostly occurs all in one afternoon, evening, and night as Clay listens to the taped after finding them delivered to his house. He cuts in giving his thoughts on the events as Hannah tells her truths, and for me that added nuance to understanding who Hannah and all the people cast in her reasons are. I love how accurate season 1 of the show is to the book, except it plays out over more than one night. The show stuck with me, and the book will, too, in its own way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Bullying, Rape, Car accident, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts
crabinspace's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Grief
Moderate: Vomit and Car accident
rody's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Death, Rape, Suicide, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Bullying, Car accident, Grief, Self harm, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness
unusuallyy's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
TW // discussion of suicidal thoughts in a character; brief mention of personal experience with suicidal thoughts; swearing; brief discussion of a character's rape
i'm going to preface this by saying that this is a two-sided book. for some people, it's been a great help and has connected them with the characters and made them feel seen. for others, it's been the opposite.
for me, it was amazing at first - that's why it became my new favorite book for a couple of months and i'd left a five star review here. but then i noticed the issues.
i came back to common sense media and goodreads, and i noticed all the negative reviews about hannah and her being a vengeful little a-hole. and these were true. upon rethinking the book's plot, i came to several conclusions:
1) while hannah's thoughts could be justified (i'd had thoughts based on social issues before) depression, ptsd, or getting help was never discussed. it didn't provide another way out. there was no hope from the start, making it an unrealistic depiction of real life.
2) it makes all the kids in the high school seem like dickheads, and when i read it, i was in seventh or eighth grade (where i live, this is still 'middle school'). this made me worry much more about high school, and whether or not everything was going to go okay. normally it's just a few people who are being terrible; hannah's point of view made everyone (except perhaps clay?) awful people.
3) hannah pins the blame for her suicide on her old friend who drifted away from her...and includes in her 'reason' tape that one of the reasons she's gone is because her friend got raped?? that makes no sense whatsoever. why did something that happened to someone else ... ??? idk, mate. maybe it's because she chose not to intervene and feels guilty, but that was really her fault, not jessica's!! she doesn't even send a tape to the apist, either. that's practically victim-blaming.
4) it portrays school counselors as unhelpful, and not good resources for change. sure, the new 'school counselor' is also the english teacher, and perhaps not professionally trained for such a job. but that was no reason to write this counselor as one of the reasons! from what i've experienced, school counselors have been fairly helpful, and painting this character as just a bit better than vecna's puppet in stranger things season 4 is not helpful!
5) it's an amalgam of ideas, not planned to work together very well. the cassette tape idea from the museum asher mentions is smashed together with a random notion to make something involving the "baker's dozen". this is a novel about a young woman's suicide - there shouldn't be any jokes to it! suicide is a serious issue, and it almost feels like this book generally treats suicide as a nonserious, valid way of getting out and getting revenge - which leads into my next point...
6) it romanticizes suicide. this book inspired my idea to make my own thirteen reasons why list, and had me considering following in hannah's footsteps and getting revenge on the people who'd made my life worse. honestly, such an idea should never be planted in teens' heads - it can have devastating consequences.
7) it insinuates the idea that people who are depressed or considering suicide have always a concise list of developed, separate reasons before going through with it. this makes no sense, and from personal experience the reasons for going through with it are never distinct or separate from one another and they kind of bleed together. through the haze, none of it really made sense or was 'reasonable' at all.
i'm going to preface this by saying that this is a two-sided book. for some people, it's been a great help and has connected them with the characters and made them feel seen. for others, it's been the opposite.
for me, it was amazing at first - that's why it became my new favorite book for a couple of months and i'd left a five star review here. but then i noticed the issues.
i came back to common sense media and goodreads, and i noticed all the negative reviews about hannah and her being a vengeful little a-hole. and these were true. upon rethinking the book's plot, i came to several conclusions:
1) while hannah's thoughts could be justified (i'd had thoughts based on social issues before) depression, ptsd, or getting help was never discussed. it didn't provide another way out. there was no hope from the start, making it an unrealistic depiction of real life.
2) it makes all the kids in the high school seem like dickheads, and when i read it, i was in seventh or eighth grade (where i live, this is still 'middle school'). this made me worry much more about high school, and whether or not everything was going to go okay. normally it's just a few people who are being terrible; hannah's point of view made everyone (except perhaps clay?) awful people.
3) hannah pins the blame for her suicide on her old friend who drifted away from her...and includes in her 'reason' tape that one of the reasons she's gone is because her friend got raped?? that makes no sense whatsoever. why did something that happened to someone else ... ??? idk, mate. maybe it's because she chose not to intervene and feels guilty, but that was really her fault, not jessica's!! she doesn't even send a tape to the apist, either. that's practically victim-blaming.
4) it portrays school counselors as unhelpful, and not good resources for change. sure, the new 'school counselor' is also the english teacher, and perhaps not professionally trained for such a job. but that was no reason to write this counselor as one of the reasons! from what i've experienced, school counselors have been fairly helpful, and painting this character as just a bit better than vecna's puppet in stranger things season 4 is not helpful!
5) it's an amalgam of ideas, not planned to work together very well. the cassette tape idea from the museum asher mentions is smashed together with a random notion to make something involving the "baker's dozen". this is a novel about a young woman's suicide - there shouldn't be any jokes to it! suicide is a serious issue, and it almost feels like this book generally treats suicide as a nonserious, valid way of getting out and getting revenge - which leads into my next point...
6) it romanticizes suicide. this book inspired my idea to make my own thirteen reasons why list, and had me considering following in hannah's footsteps and getting revenge on the people who'd made my life worse. honestly, such an idea should never be planted in teens' heads - it can have devastating consequences.
7) it insinuates the idea that people who are depressed or considering suicide have always a concise list of developed, separate reasons before going through with it. this makes no sense, and from personal experience the reasons for going through with it are never distinct or separate from one another and they kind of bleed together. through the haze, none of it really made sense or was 'reasonable' at all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Alcohol
Moderate: Rape, Cursing, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
kryolitee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Suicide, Bullying, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts