My Reason Why

Thirteen Reasons Why

           by Jay Asher

5/5 Starry Eyes


First, a summary from Goodreads:

"Clay Jensen 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."

Let me first start off by saying that the point of this book isn't to be an amazingly fantastic read, but it's meant to pull you in and then hopefully spit you out as a better person.

Hannah's reasons even sounded a bit . . . not nessecarily dumb, but not as earth shaking as I thought they would be, at least to me they did. However, as mentioned through her tapes, it's not the act of the individual reasons, it's the effect they had on her all together. It's like telling someone to lift up 5 pounds. Easy, right? But what happens when you add five more? And then five more after that? And then add on another five . . . Well, you get my point. The weight gets to a point where you can't hold it anymore and give up, letting it all collapse around you, just like Hannah did. 

And that's my reason why I give this book five red maple leaves out of five. Not nessecarily for the content of the book, but for it's message. Although I am shamed to admit it, I have been in situations where people aren't too happy and I've just ducked my head and pretended not to notice. Why did I do it? Because I was afraid to get involved, what if they suddenly turned on me and now my life was a mess? I just didn't want that; so I kept walking.

Thirteen Reasons Why is a book that I would read with an open mind. If you're just looking for a good read, I wouldn't suggest this book, because that's not what the focus is about. (Being an exciting read to make money) No, this book is about standing up for others and treating them with the respect they diserve. It's about getting out a message that even if all you did was stand there while kids were making fun of someone else, you may not be apart of the problem, but you sure as hell weren't apart of the solution either.

I'm sitting here, and it's 2AM (when I had finished reading it, lol) and I probably won't get to sleep for another hour because this book has gotten my mind so stirred up I'll be lucky if I can even calm it down in that amount of time. This book is definately thought-provoking and I really do believe that the school board should use it in the school curriculum because I have no doubt that - while it may not change everyone - a lot of kids will walk away from it changed. Not to the point where they all become saints, but instead in a way that will help them realize how much of an impact simply leaving them to fend for themselves can have.