Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

The hype surrounding this book and the subsequent Netflix series made me feel like if I didn’t read this book this summer, that I would be left out of a major issue surrounding young adults and what they read/watch. So like any good librarian would tell me to do, I read the book and then watched the series.  I truly fell in love with Hannah Baker and therefore Clay Jensen.  It is a haunting story but one that is also so full of moments in which to look at the way we treat each other and to find ways to change our behaviors in order to be kinder.   I found it to be a very realistic look at depression and all of the small moments that combine to convince someone to choose to end their life rather than try to find something to live for.  The publisher’s synopsis is as always quoted below!

 

You can’t stop the future. 
You can’t rewind the past.
The only way to learn the secret . . . is to press play.

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package 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. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.