Thirteen Reasons Why is a bleak book, but one I’m glad to have read. It’s the story of Hannah Baker, a teenage girl who has committed suicide for reasons seemingly unknown to the community. Clay Jensen is one of Hannah’s classmates and someone who admired her mostly from afar. Two weeks after Hannah’s suicide, Clay finds a package of cassette tapes on his doorstep. On the tapes is Hannah’s story–her thirteen reasons why she has decided to kill herself.
As I said, it’s a bleak book, but it has brutally honest and even some beautiful moments as well. I really liked the character of Clay, but I had mixed feelings about Hannah. Halfway through the story, I began doubting her; at times, simply dismissing her as an unreliable narrator. Toward the end of the novel, I began to feel pity for her, but I’m still not sure that I would call her a likable character.
Although the writing is not quite as haunting as Cormac McCarthy’s, I was left with a feeling after reading Thirteen Reasons Why that reminded me of the feeling I had when I finished The Road. I can’t say that this is a happy book by any means, but it’s well-written and I think it’s a story that deserves to be told.
