Book Review - Thirteen Reasons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Standalone
Genres: Contemporary | Young Adult
Release Date: 14th June 2011
Publishers: Razorbill
No. Pages: 288
Source: Gifted
Rating: 
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Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.

This book caused a great deal more emotional pain for me, than a lot of other books. Having been through some, not very nice things in my life myself, although fiction, being taken through another girls journey which in the end, reached the decision of suicide, was quite difficult to read.

Although overall I gave this book 4 stars, it was let down by the fact that the first few chapters seemed to be dragged. And although I understood the concept, of the small things become bigger things, problems, they still felt, quite paced, if not too paced. If there was anything I could say that could have possibly improved the first few chapters, it would have been if more time was spent on the larger, more serious of events. Personally, for me, the first 5 chapters were too large for the stories within them.

The latter half of the book was brilliantly written and really showed what someone goes through when thinking of suicide. I'm sure there's a lot of people who can relate to being in a tough patch, or going through a spell of depression, but this book takes it to the next level. It gives you a real insight on how the smallest of things, can become huge obstacles in your life.

Thirteen Reasons Why seriously hit a nerve with me, and brought a lot of memories I thought were buried, back up, hence it has taken me a day to find the words for this review. I know that if I were to recommend this book to anyone else, I would at least say, if you've ever thought about suicide, self harmed, and seriously felt alone, don't expect this book to be a light, easy read, because it isn't.