A review by rashellyreads
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Thirteen Reasons Why was such a great read! I can't tell you how many times I cried because of this book. Jay Asher, in my perspective, did such a great job of putting Clay and Hannah's stories into one. Not only was the stop, play, and pause buttons very creative, but how he used them or more specifically: where. For instance, when Clay would need to stop because of his parents (which is totally relatable) or whenever he needed to recollect his thoughts. 

I think that making Hannah a love interest for Clay was a spectacular idea. At first I thought it was a little cliché, but I started to notice that his love for Hannah is what kept us going. That, and the mystery behind Clay's tape (which I'm not going to get too far into due to spoilers). 

Lastly, the reason (no pun intended) I think Thirteen Reasons Why was such an amazing read was because of the real life situations. It named almost every possible thing I could think of, whether it was blatantly said or hidden in the characters. Depression, suicide, rape, alcoholism, narcissism, sex addiction, LGBTQ+, etc. 

Just the way that Asher put horrible, tormenting things into fiction made the problems beautiful. Not beauty in a way where the actual problem is beautiful, but in a way where it teaches us of the dangers. This book warns us about what other people are going through. It basically teaches us that everyone goes through something and could be hard to detect it. Also, that everything leads up to something.
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