Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Synopsis: 

Clay Jenkins 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.

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.

Review:

Thirteen Reason Why was a difficult yet intriguing read. The premise sounds promising: A girl's crush getting a shoebox of casette tapes detailing the 13 reasons (specifically, people) why she commited suicide. He is one of them. Of course, I kept reading because I wanted to know what Clay Jensen did to end up on Hannah Baker's list. I LOVED the reason! It was so out of the blue and contradicting with my assumed idea of what it was going to be.Bravo to Asher for that.

Things I love about the book:

1) Pacing was exceptional. It never seemed to drag.

2) Jay Asher's approach on suicide was believable and vividly painful.

3) The lesson that Clay learned from listening to Hannah's story made the reading worthwhile.

4) The suspense and the eeriness of Hannah's voice were the key factors that made this book such a page turner!

Things I Dislike:

1) The lack of character descriptions made it difficult to picture the characters. I understand that the minor characters on Hannah's list can do without physical desriptions, but Clay and Hannah should have had better description. We don't even know their hair or eye color.

2) I thought Hannah's final reason was really badly written. I didn't believe the conversation that took place. Hannah took the options the wrong way! Why? It was JUST an option. It doesn't prove the fact that no one cares about her anymore. I just thought it was so strange that that final reason made her take her own life.

Okay, I don't think I disliked too much of the book. I'm giving it 4 star for originality, believability, and poor character description. The whole time I was reading, I could vaguely imagine the characters, and that was based on their behaviors or Asher's frequent insertion of "beautiful" and "handsome." Jay Asher needs to somehow make the characters imaginable in the reader's psyche. 

4/5