Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

From Jay Asher's website:
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several 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.
I ultimately really liked this book.

It cuts you, it makes you ache, it washes you in loneliness but leaves you with a little bit of hope. Exactly what I expected from a book about suicide. What I especially loved, though, is that the book *isn’t* simply a book about suicide. It’s much more about how we treat each other and, most of all, the price that’s paid for the thousand casual acts of cruelty and carelessness that happen everyday. Some of them, certainly, are done with vicious intentions. But many of Hannah’s thirteen reasons are thoughtless things done without any real menace behind them. Things that people all around us and, yes, I’m going to say it--even you and I--may have done before, thinking it wouldn’t really do much harm. This is definitely an “issue” book and carries a message: be kind to each other, always. Even the little things matter in big ways if someone is already short on hope.

A few quick notes on the more technical aspects of the book...As noted in the description above, the book has a dual narrative. The story is told from Clay's point of view, but woven through it is Hannah's voice from the tapes as Clay listens to her story. The voices are very distinct, though the quick back-and-forth changes mean that you really have to pay attention. I was so caught up in Hannah's story that I tended to forget about Clay, and the POV changes occasionally slipped by me. In fact, Clay didn't matter a whole lot to me until the end of the story. It was Hannah who kept me turning pages, Hannah who broke my heart. Clay's voice is necessary to the structure of the novel and, I think, well written. His character and his place in the story can't be fully appreciated until the end, but the way everything comes together is well worth the wait.

Go! Buy! Love!