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Thirteen Reasons Why
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Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher - August
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I love Clay, and his narrator did a great job with him. He was fantastic at conveying emotions and feelings. I love Hannah too...she seemed so sweet but sad. The things leading up to her suicide seem small as single events, but add them all together and they cumulated to drive her into depression and despair. Her narrator was awesome too.
Oh, and be prepared to cry...
I already purchased the book on my Kindle. I haven't listened to an audio book in a long time. Maybe if I end up re-reading it, I'll get the audio book :) Looking fwd to reading it.
I read this for a pick-it-for-me challenge and here's my review:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
:> hope you guys like it because I really did.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
:> hope you guys like it because I really did.
Sheri wrote: "If anyone is planning on reading this, I would suggest listening to the audio book!..."I totally agree! Especially since Clay is listening to an audio, too. It makes it that much more... stirring? It feels like you're listening to Hannah at the same moment he is.
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BTW...most public libraries have audio books. That's where I get mine :)
Not going to lie, but I cried, when we hear why Clay is mention in the tapes.
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BTW...most public libraries have audio books. That's where I ..."
I have no idea why the audio book would be different from the book?? I have never listened to one so I am confused lol.
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BTW...most public libraries have audio books. T..."
It's because Hannah's whole part in the book is audio tape...Clay listening to them. So when you hear the audio it's like you're actually going through the tapes with him. It's really neat.
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@Thomas, I agree with you about Hannah's character...I think the reason she didn't have ANY friends is because she didn't want to. She wanted to feel sorry for herself. She had plenty of opportunities, especially with Clay, and I'm sure in any school there would have been more people who would have helped her/be-friended her if she had just reached out. Instead she internalized everything and made it her own problem.
When I was in 8th grade (so 13 or 14) a brother of a friend stopped by my house and asked me on a date. I said no, and he left. He was there for like 5 minutes and never left the front porch (I didn't like him). The next day at school he told everyone we had sex. What did I do about it? Nothing. Because I couldn't have cared less what him or his friends thought about me. I knew the truth, and my friends knew the truth, so I didn't let it bother me. Guys are jerks, no offense, but it's the truth :) A girl like Hannah (and there are girls like her out there) would have taken it as a personal assault against her and would have added him to her list.
A Profoundly Powerful book about pain, and anger, and how selfish acts can spill over and pour out of a soul. A truth about how actions and WORDS can hurt, and what hurt can lead many to do to escape. This was and will always be the best book I've ever read. Not because I loved the story or the plot so grand. But because the 'truth' was so real. It made me cry , it made me mad, it made me angry, and depressed. IT. MADE. ME. REMEMBER. I wanted to scream and yell at every character. At how childish and selfish they were . I longed to rip the pages from its binding and watch each one burn. And by the time I reached the last page....I wanted to heal
I read the book first then a couple of months later it hit me to try the audio book for a better experience, but i didn't like it the same way. It was still good I just pictured their voices and breakdowns to be different; anyway still one of my favorite books because it connects me to a past me. Hope yall enjoy it as much as I did.
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Agreed :)
I was a victim of teasing and bullying is high school. And yes these are reasons that people commit suicide over. I attempted when younger. Unless you are the victim, you will never understand the pain.
I didn't think someone would commit suicide over the reasons that Hannah did but now I have a better idea of what depressed people go through and how its so hard to climb out of that hole. I think that some people enjoy these kind of books because they are somewhat relatable be it that you've gone through it or know people who have and that its looking at real world concepts and the consequences of peoples words and actions.
I finished this book last night. The book brought about a lot of feelings for me. I thought it was beautifully written and presented in a very creative way. The use of cassettes was an interesting choice. It was hard hearing Hannah's thoughts and her expressing the despair she was feeling. Teen suicide is a scary, sad, thing. If anything, hopefully this book will help the reader recognize the signs and maybe even be *kinder* to others.
This book was a very easy read. It did pull me in and I really wanted to find out what finally made Hannah do it. Though I have to say that once Clay’s story had been told my interest faded. Not that it wasn’t good anymore after that, it was just slightly disappointing. I had expected some sort of twist or something exciting, but it turned out to be a let down for me. What I found the best part and at the same time the most disappointing part is that all Hannah’s reasons are small things. I’m not saying they don’t have big consequences or that they are unimportant, it’s just that all these small things happened and not this one huge thing that just threw her life of balance completely. I liked this because this shows us that every action has consequences, even those that you can’t foresee. It does kind of carry the moral that you should be careful with your actions because you can never know what impact they might have. It just shows how these things can snowball from being something very unimportant to something you just don’t know how to deal with. But in a way I guess I was hoping for something special or spectacular, which is why I was sort of disappointed. But in the end I liked it just the way it was.
I did find there to be very limited character building, but in a way I didn’t really miss it all that much. I was much more interested in the why than anything else. Of course you got to know Hannah, but only in a very limited way. It was the same with all the others, they were all pretty one-sided characters because we only got to see their part in the story of Hannah’s suicide. But this didn’t bother me at all, it’s just more something that I noticed.
Stefanie wrote: "This book was a very easy read. It did pull me in and I really wanted to find out what finally made Hannah do it. Though I have to say that once Clay’s story had been told my interest faded. Not th..."I also found that my interest faded slightly after Clay's story only because there was so much anticipation to his part in it and I thought he really didn't have much to do with it; as though he didn't really try, like his part was just in passing. The story was meant to be one sided but a sequel would be nice to show how they dealt with her suicide and listening to the tapes. Why use a case instead of CD? Gives it a very 90's feel despite having 21st century technology.
I was indeed sort of disappointed about Clay's part in the story. I just imagined he would have played a bigger part. It just felt as if the writer was afraid to make Clay a bad guy. Not that he had to be, but I just sort of felt Clay's part was... uninteresting.Missy wrote: "I didn't think someone would commit suicide over the reasons that Hannah did but now I have a better idea of what depressed people go through and how its so hard to climb out of that hole. I think..."
And here I agree, at first I kept thinking "is this really something you commit suicide over?" But then after a while i just started seeing that it's just something you can't talk about or can't think rationally about anymore. I think it's (=depression) just something that's really hard to grasp if you haven't been in that situation yourself.
I agree sooo much about the audio book. The first time i tried to read it, it was just difficult understanding some of the emotions behind various things. But the audio added some short of "realistic" aspect that made me understand the depression Hannah faced.
This book was very hard for me to read. I had a friend kill himself when I was a junior in high school and there were a lot of scenes that resonated with how I remember that time. I didn't read this as the author trying to make us feel sorry for Hannah or to understand why she would take that final step because we can't unless we've been there ourselves. Instead I was looking at it as Jay trying to point out that some of the littlest things we do can have a big impact.
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.
Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.
What do you think of Clay? How about Hannah? Does your opinion of them change as the story unfolds?
Feel free to discuss the book as you go, but please use SPOILERS for those of us who haven't gotten this far!!! (Check out the 'some html is ok' box above the post box for spoiler tags.)
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http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/9...