Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Blurb
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.

**************************************Review*****************************************

Thirteen Reasons why is definitely one of the books with meaning. I meant to pick it up a long time ago, but always looked over it. Seemed like a typical teen fiction, so I didn't think to much until I heard all the praise.... so here I am now. The ideas are put together really well, using voices that really brought out the best in the novel.

Hannah Baker- dead girl- seemed to have a lot to say about thirteen specific people, and there were times when I would be like... ok, that's not THAT big of a deal to die over... but then she said other things. Things such as (not exact words) little things can grow into big things, kind of like a snow ball effect. So I felt for her. She also seems to have a little humour in her voice here and there. Helps escape all the dreariness.

Then there was Clay Jensen. He's a typical teenage boy who has to listen to all thirteen tapes, waiting dreadfully for his turn- while wondering what he did wrong. I have to say, his reactions were kind of unsatisfying. How do I put this? He didn't seem as alive to me as some of the other characters. When he did react in big ways, it seemed like something the author just had to put there, and not something Clay Jenson would actually do.

There's also the setting. The places in the story were well described, and well thought out. I also liked how each tape was matched with a place on a map. It helped to comprehend the tapes better.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I learned a lot from it, too. I learned that pictures aren't necessarily worth a million words. They can be misleading. I also learned to not judge people, and not ignore them either, because that's just as bad. I'm giving this a four stars.