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ifkas 's review for:
Thirteen Reasons Why
by Jay Asher
I rarely write book reviews, I usually just give out grades. But for some reason I felt compelled to write a review for this one.
It’s not the greatest or the worst book I’ve ever read. I neither hate it nor love it. When it comes to literary devices, it has both strengths and weaknesses, none of which I wish to discuss right now.
The main reasons for wanting to write a review were the comments from the readers who absolutely hated the book. In other words, their reason why they hated the book is the reason why I’m writing this. So this is the one reason why people who didn’t like the book didn’t like it: the reasons leading to Hannah Baker killing herself are not strong enough reasons to make a person want to end their own life.
Well, my question is: who are you to decide that? Maybe, they’re not good enough reasons for you. They sure as hell are not good enough reasons for me. But they were clearly good enough for her.
Not all people are the same. Not all people are strong enough. We are not all equally equipped to deal with the level of shit that life throws at us on a daily basis.
Can you imagine a situation where you are one of the characters in the book and for some reason Hannah decided to tell you what she was going through. She told you her thirteen reasons and you were all like: ‘Bitch, those ain’t good enough reasons!’ Well, people who are having thoughts about suicide are probably afraid of that kind of reaction, which is exactly why they don’t ask for help. And rightfully so, if we take into the account all those negative comments about Hannah’s reasons.
Hannah’s reasons were immature. Trivial. Not big enough. Not traumatic enough. To you. To me. But not to her, because they were hers. I bet you think you could go through what Hannah did, plus a billion worse things, without contemplating suicide. So could I. But Hannah couldn’t.
She did annoy me A LOT, especially through the first half of the book, because I couldn’t relate to her and her problems. But later I found myself really feeling sorry for her because her problems were smothering her, not allowing her to live and I just wanted to help her. I wanted to talk to her and let her know that I understood how she felt. That I often felt exactly the same, but for completely different reasons. My own number of reasons that someone would laugh at and discard as not important enough. Not that big of a deal.
We always think our own problems are the worst in the world. And we should because they’re ours and only we deal with them. Some people are really good at it. Others struggle a lot, but at the end of the day they somehow manage. Some people just can’t. It is not fair to judge someone’s actions based on what we think we would do if we were in their shoes. We can never know what goes on in their heads. We can never know what it’s like to be them.
So let me tell you my ONE reason why I decided to give 4 stars to “Thirteen Reasons Why”, rather than 3 as I originally intended. Even though I said it’s not the greatest book in the world and not even close to becoming one of my personal favorites, it clearly did leave a strong impression on me. So strong that I decided to write my own opinion about it, which I almost never do.
And I can’t wait to discuss this with my book club in February! I have a feeling it’s going to be an epic debate :)
It’s not the greatest or the worst book I’ve ever read. I neither hate it nor love it. When it comes to literary devices, it has both strengths and weaknesses, none of which I wish to discuss right now.
The main reasons for wanting to write a review were the comments from the readers who absolutely hated the book. In other words, their reason why they hated the book is the reason why I’m writing this. So this is the one reason why people who didn’t like the book didn’t like it: the reasons leading to Hannah Baker killing herself are not strong enough reasons to make a person want to end their own life.
Well, my question is: who are you to decide that? Maybe, they’re not good enough reasons for you. They sure as hell are not good enough reasons for me. But they were clearly good enough for her.
Not all people are the same. Not all people are strong enough. We are not all equally equipped to deal with the level of shit that life throws at us on a daily basis.
Can you imagine a situation where you are one of the characters in the book and for some reason Hannah decided to tell you what she was going through. She told you her thirteen reasons and you were all like: ‘Bitch, those ain’t good enough reasons!’ Well, people who are having thoughts about suicide are probably afraid of that kind of reaction, which is exactly why they don’t ask for help. And rightfully so, if we take into the account all those negative comments about Hannah’s reasons.
Hannah’s reasons were immature. Trivial. Not big enough. Not traumatic enough. To you. To me. But not to her, because they were hers. I bet you think you could go through what Hannah did, plus a billion worse things, without contemplating suicide. So could I. But Hannah couldn’t.
She did annoy me A LOT, especially through the first half of the book, because I couldn’t relate to her and her problems. But later I found myself really feeling sorry for her because her problems were smothering her, not allowing her to live and I just wanted to help her. I wanted to talk to her and let her know that I understood how she felt. That I often felt exactly the same, but for completely different reasons. My own number of reasons that someone would laugh at and discard as not important enough. Not that big of a deal.
We always think our own problems are the worst in the world. And we should because they’re ours and only we deal with them. Some people are really good at it. Others struggle a lot, but at the end of the day they somehow manage. Some people just can’t. It is not fair to judge someone’s actions based on what we think we would do if we were in their shoes. We can never know what goes on in their heads. We can never know what it’s like to be them.
So let me tell you my ONE reason why I decided to give 4 stars to “Thirteen Reasons Why”, rather than 3 as I originally intended. Even though I said it’s not the greatest book in the world and not even close to becoming one of my personal favorites, it clearly did leave a strong impression on me. So strong that I decided to write my own opinion about it, which I almost never do.
And I can’t wait to discuss this with my book club in February! I have a feeling it’s going to be an epic debate :)