13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

I think that many eighth grade girls would enjoy this book, because the concept is very interesting and the girls who have read it gave really good feedback. As much as I wanted to like this book, I didn't. 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher is about a girl who commits suicide and has 13 tapes for 13 people that were related to her decision to kill herself. The narrator is Clay, who received these 13 tapes and the whole book is his experience reacting and listening to them. The first problem is that Clay was a person she liked, not a person she blamed her death on. I think the book would be so much more powerful if the narrator was reflecting in his/her mean actions towards Hannah Baker (the girl who dies), and deals with the guilt inside. Second of all, the book felt completely forced. I like the idea a lot, but the idea could've been realistically done. This boy Clay is crying and is a wreck and it seems like he loves Hannah, but it turns out he didn't really know her and just kissed her once. He talks about how amazing Hannah is, etc. I felt like it felt too fake because he never actually got to understand her, he never loved her, and he barely spent any time with her. He was throwing up, crying, feeling terrible throughout the whole time he listens to these tapes but all these feelings and actions are exaggerated and totally unrealistic. Also, it turns out that the reasons why Hannah killed herself isn't a legitimate reason. She talks about how she had friends, and how she lived a normal life. When little reasons came across like teasing or doing little acts of stalking, she took everything so personally and kills herself. Nothing big or drastic actually happens in her life, and it seemed like she was just going through the ups and downs of high school. That's why her death seemed so exaggerated also because the reason why she killed herself were small normal things.

I am incredibly frustrated with this book. But, I would recommend this book because I know lots of teen girls would love this book, and the book is quite popular.