Author: Jay Asher
Publication Date: October 18, 2007
Format: Ebook - 288 pages
Rating: ★★★ (2.5)
Goodreads Page
I wasn't planning to review this book because it's been out for so long and I feel like everyone already knows what it's about or has already read it, but while reading it I had such strong feelings that I basically said fuck it, I'm doing a review. So here we go.
*First things first, while reading this I heard of the allegations against the author, Jay Asher. My review is not influenced at all by the author or anything concerning him personally. My review is strictly for the content of the book. Article here if you have no clue what I'm talking about.
When I saw the hype this book got, I thought I would love it. When I actually started reading it though, I realized I was not a fan, and thought for sure I would hate it. I thought it would be a one-star read, which is a very rare rating to come from me. It wasn't until a little over halfway through that it started to pick up and my thoughts on the content became conflicted. I cannot think of another book that has ever left me feeling so divided.
Review:
The short and sweet answer to how I felt about this book? I have mixed feelings, but overall, I strongly disliked it. We'll get to why in a moment, but let's start on a positive note. I did like that this book brought a lot of discussion to the topics of teen suicide (and suicide in general tbh), bullying, and how your actions affect others, however insignificant those actions may seem to you.
Now for why I didn't like it. There were several reasons, but I'll start with the minor annoyances first.
1. I didn't connect to Clay as a character at all. He felt very flat and if he hadn't been the one to listen to Hannah's tapes, it would feel like he were in the story for no reason. Even his reason for being on the tapes is pretty pointless and feels as though it's only used to justify him being the one to tell the story through.
2. When Hannah is speaking on the tapes she repeats the same thing several times before getting to the damn point of what she's saying. I feel like a lot of Hannah's monologue could have been edited out with no change to the story. It was so annoying to hear her start to say why an experience is on the tape, just to ask the same rhetorical question over and over of the listener using different phrasing, and then repeat what she started to say about that experience.
3. I don't know if Clay's reason for being on the tapes was supposed to be a plot-twist, but I could tell from the beginning he wasn't going to be on there for the same kinds of reasons as the others. For me, the biggest 'plot twist' came later in the book and was when Hannah admitted to not stopping another girls rape, which I'll go into more below.
4. Clay's feelings for Hannah did not seem sweet or romantic to me at all, they seemed creepy. He had a crush on her when she was alive, but once she dies it turns into something weird and obsessive. He overreacts to everything on the tapes and makes it a point to follow each star on the map, and he didn't even know her that well. He treats Hannah like she's some rare treasure that he's heard of just after it was lost at sea. He was too afraid to get close to her when she was alive, until the very end, then when it goes wrong, he goes back to not trying to get close to her. But now that she's dead, she's like the love of his life or something.
5. Now for the reasons Hannah committed suicide. I've seen a lot of people say that her reasons on the tapes are stupid reasons to kill yourself. I disagree. I think the reasons (bullying, sexual assault, loneliness, etc) are perfectly logical reasons as to why someone might want to commit suicide. However, I don't feel that all of the example situations Hannah gives of those reasons are necessarily cases of them. Now, I understand that even if I don't understand someone's reasons for wanting to commit suicide, those reasons are still relevant to that person. Even if you have depression, suicidal thoughts, or another mental illness, you can only understand your experience with it. You may not be able to understand why someone else's reasons for feeling the way they do, are reasons to feel that way. You may think that because you are suicidal, and manage to deal with certain things, someone else who is suicidal should be able to deal with those same things too. This would be the wrong way to view this. So I'm not saying that Hannah's reasons don't make sense, I'm saying her view of certain examples of those reasons didn't make sense to me.
For example, being lonely and thinking you have made a friend, just to realize they were using you, is an understandable reason to feel the way Hannah did. But I don't think Hannah's example of her friend using her was actually an example of her friend using her. Because the book is fiction, the only perspective I have of this situation is the one presented by Hannah in the book. Even so, from Hannah's perspective, it doesn't seem like her friend is using her. Her friend isn't great sure, and maybe it was just a poorly written part of the story, but the thoughts and feelings Hannah mentions having during this tape don't fit the situation she's describing to the reader. It feels as though we're presented an objective view of the situation, overlaid with Hannah's perspective of how things unfolded, only Hannah's perspective seems to have been interpreted wrong. As the reader, I saw the situation completely different from how Hannah did, which is a problem considering it's Hannah who's telling this story. Hannah's perception of situations also became an issue with me when she became upset with a friend for not saying goodbye as she left the classroom, though, Hannah herself says, the girl didn't say goodbye typically. She claims she could just tell that it was a snub against her and that whole thing just doesn't make any sense to me. If you can't convey how a situation made you feel the way you did when you're explaining the situation to someone else, then isn't it possible that that's because you misinterpreted it? Are those actions absolutely done with the intent you believe them to be? Humans are flawed creatures, we make mistakes, we perceive things wrong. It's easier to believe the world is out to get you and that people are being mean when you're in an unhealthy mindset, or when you're alone a lot and stew over every detail of an interaction with someone, and end up believing that person had nefarious intentions when they may not have. Overthinking is something that's common with people who have depression. Don't blame someone for something they aren't actually doing, or believe the worst about someone when it's possible you're the one in the wrong.
Now this example isn't one that's hard to understand like the previous examples, but it was one I found interesting enough to mention. Hannah describes the start of her downward spiral as beginning with an experience of sexual assault in a corner store where she was groped non-consensually. I'm not saying sexual assault isn't a reason someone might commit suicide or set in motion an unhealthy thought train that would lead to it. I'm just saying that it's interesting to look at how Hannah views this experience. Most women are sexually assaulted/harassed in their lifetime. Most women experience this by the time they're preteens, some even as children. For most women, this is something that happens multiple times, and this is a constant thing all women have to worry about in their day to day life. Most women expect it as it has become such a typical thing women have to deal with (I know it happens to men too, but I'm specifically speaking on how it affects women right now). This one instance alone did not push her to suicide but put her in a place where she was more susceptible to suicidal thoughts once other aspects of her life became confused. And I think it's interesting to examine how Hannah feels after this one instance of it.
6. The blaming. This kind of ties into the previous reason, but blaming people for your death is an incredibly shitty and emotionally manipulative thing to do. It wasn't like she hastily scrawled a suicide note while in the height of pre-suicidal emotions, she took the time to record each tape and make a map. She took the time to set it up so someone else would be able to monitor the situation after she was dead. This wasn't something she just did without thinking about it, she had to plan it, she thought it through very thoroughly before she did it. Someone's actions may make you feel depressed, sad, suicidal, etc. But blaming them after you've died when there is no chance of that person ever being able to apologize or amend the situation is horrible. Especially considering the spectrum of why these people were on these tapes. It ranges from a girl being a bitch because she's jealous of Hannah to someone being a rapist. To justify placing the same level of blame on these people is something I cannot possibly understand.
7. The Rape. I have a huge issue with this scene, though it isn't because I think it was written poorly or unrealistic. I am disgusted by the fact that she would listen to another girl being raped and not say or do anything. I suppose it's possible to freeze up in a situation like that, but to go on with your life afterwards and do absolutely nothing is inexcusable. As hard as this scene may be for some people to read, I appreciate that it was included in the book as it's something I'm sure happens more often than we think. I think it added quite a bit of dimension to Hannah's character and really showed us a part of her we wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. My issue is basically with Hannah's actions, not the way the situation was presented to us through the writing.
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Maybe I'm just a hard shell of a human with no heart or soul, but for me, this whole book was a huge no. I won't be recommending this. Maybe it's been helpful to someone and if it has, then I think that's great. But if someone asked me for a recommendation, especially someone struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, I would want to ere on the side of caution and recommend them any of the other books I've read on this topic that handles the subject better. This book put me in a very unsettled mindset while I was reading it, and I can't imagine someone who struggles as much as or more than I do with unhealthy thoughts being able to read this and it be more beneficial than harmful for them.
✿ Please comment below with your thoughts or opinions on 13 Reasons Why or this review. If you've seen the show adaptation, let me know what you thought, I'm still on the fence about it. I've heard it handles things better than the book, but I've also heard that it's really harmful to watch. Let me know what you think. If you liked this review, subscribe to BookSass, and thanks for reading!
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