Thirteen Reasons Why–Book Review

This book lingered in my psyche all week. I found myself bringing it up in every conversation. Or rather turning every conversation to it. With my penpal in Okinawa, with my bff at IHOP, to dad when he walked in the door from work, to Mom as we ate lunch.

It left an indelible mark on me. And so dear readers, I decided to have a Sunday blog post about it. For this week only, we will have a seven day run of blog posts. Yup it’s that important, that I’m cutting into my travelogue diary.

To say, this book needs to be read by every single high school student in the world. Scratch that. Every single human being. Because the implications are staggering.

One of the most thought provoking lines of the book has to do with the fact that when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you mess with their entire life.

Jay Asher’s riveting Thirteen Reasons Why brings the reader on an internal journey, forcing them to take a revealing look at themselves.

In this book, Clay Jensen receives a box from his classmate Hannah, who died weeks ago. Inside are cassette tapes she recorded explaining the thirteen reasons why she died. And then she tells him, and if you are listening to this tape, you are one of those reasons.

The book juxtaposes Clay’s thoughts with Hannah’s recorded tapes in a gut-wrenching, macabre hunt to understand what happened to Hannah and what could have been done to help her.

Along the way, stupid pranks, cruel jokes, spiteful words, and looking the other way, they all snowball and leave suicide her only option. It really makes you stop and think how much impact you have on everyone around you. And realize all your actions have consequences. Not just for you, but for everyone around it.

In the end, it made me want to be a better person. To not stand by and watch someone suffer or be picked on. To not look the other way. To not let things snowball for others.

That is why everyone should read Thirteen Reasons Why. It makes you care again. To want to make a slight difference because you understand one word or one action can make all the difference to someone.

You can read more about the book at: Thirteen Reasons Why

And you can purchase a copy of the book here on Amazon.

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