Thirteen Reasons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why
by Jay Asher

So after receiving my new Kindle Fire on Thursday and running through the setup, I immediately went to the Kindle book store and purchased my first ebook, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, after hearing several good reviews from teachers and hearing a book talk about it in my Young Adult Lit class last semester. But it wasn't just the good reviews that fueled my curiosity about Jay Asher's novel, it was the entire idea behind it: a young girl commits suicide but before doing so creates a series of cassette tapes that are to be passed to each person, 13 in all just in case you missed what the title was, that pushed her towards ending her life.

The story is told through two distinct narratives running concurrently. In the present you have Clay Jensen, your typical high school good guy wanna be valedictorian. He doesn't have any skeleton's in his closet, other then a secret crush. And in the past you have the voice of Hannah Baker, a pretty new girl who's life is surrounded by rumors. Now I use the words "present" and "past" and "voice" because... well in case you haven't guessed it from my introduction, Hannah is not actually alive during the story. She is creator of the tapes and consequently the suicide victim. So while Clay listens to the tapes and progresses through them, you not only hear his thoughts and follow him through his journey but you also hear the voice of Hannah playing on the tapes. Its actually quite genius and immensely well thought out and is probably the only way to tell this story.

Now I won't say anything else relating to the story because I dare not ruin it for anyone, so you'll have to be content with what I've given you, but I will say this: I literally could not put this book down. Mr Asher created a extremely likeable and relate-able character in Clay in order to tell his story and placed him in a very real small town setting. He also addresses several real issues that teens face each and every day: fear, ridicule, rumors, suicide and dealing with the death of someone important in your life, all the while being respectful to those dealing with these issues.

With that said 5 out of 5 dawg bones. Woof!