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Thirteen Reasons Why | 
 enlarge | Author: Jay Asher
Publisher: Razorbill
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $9.58
You Save: $7.41 (44%)
New (37) Used (11) from $9.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 3807
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1
ISBN: 1595141715
EAN: 9781595141712
ASIN: 1595141715
Publication Date: October 18, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20080818211952T
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Product Description
Clay Jenkins returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers 13 cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Bakerhis classmate and crushwho 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, hell find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clays dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 53 more reviews...
 Wonderful debut novel, strongly written with perceptive content. Highly recommended to all readers August 3, 2008
Clay Jensen opens a package to discover several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, a classmate that committed suicide two weeks earlier. The thirteen sides of the tapes describe the snowball effect of rumors and high school life that lead Hannah to kill herself--and one of the sides is addressed to Clay. The interweaving narratives of Hannah's recording and Clay's listening sometimes flows into a confusing muddle, but Thirteen Reasons Why has an ingenious premise which intrigues the reader--and even better, it contains perceptive, intelligent content. This is a captivating and surprisingly sensitive book, and I recommend it.
Asher writes a good book: the premise is ingenious, the characters are realistic, and the narrative is compelling and skillful (if sometimes confusing). Clay doesn't know why Hannah killed herself or why she cites him as one of the causes of her death, so the book's very premise captures the reader and holds him in suspense until the end. (When they finally came, I found the answers to these questions a bit anticlimactic--but I still appreciate the journey to reach them.) Hannah and Clay, as well as the other teenagers that populate the book, are wonderfully realistic--sometimes this traps them in annoying teen behaviors, but it also makes them compelling and sympathetic. Asher interweaves Hannah's tapes with Clay's listening--it can be easy to miss the switch, and going back to reread a few paragraphs breaks up the flow of the book, but on the whole this is a wonderful narrative choice which keeps suspense high and explores the two characters and their relationship in great depth.
Asher writes well, but perhaps even better than his writing is his content. Difficult subjects are old fair in young adult novels, but it is rare to see them handled so well as they are here. Asher does not include taboo subject on a whim or for shock value alone; rather, he is aware of their impact and treats them with respect. Rumors about promiscuity begin the snowball effect that leads to Hannah's suicide, and it is at once refreshing and terrifying to see the impact of sexual activity, social norms, and high school politics on these teens. But Hannah's thirteen reasons do not excuse her from responsibility for her death, and the impact of her suicide lingers in Clay and in the community. The book's message is that actions have consequences--and we all have some control over those consequences. It's a hopeful message but it's terrifying too, and Asher delivers it with aplomb.
For whatever reason, Thirteen Reasons Why didn't blow me away, but I greatly enjoyed it nonetheless. Perhaps the teen voice was too accurate; certainly the constant switches in narration slowed down my reading. I also believe that the secrets--Hannah's final reasons and her connection to Clay--quite live up to all the suspense that proceeds them; I'd like to see more of an adult influence on the characters, and the ending is abrupt. But these quibbles are just that: though imperfections, they don't detract from the book as whole. This is a wonderful debut novel: strongly written, captivating, and intelligent, with unusually perceptive content. It captured and impressed me, and I'm glad to have read it. I highly recommend it--to readers of all ages, although I think it will mean most to high schoolers.
 great book! August 2, 2008
i loved it! it was very cleverly written and i could not stop reading the book until i finished it.
A real page turner!! July 11, 2008
I could not put the book down because I needed to know what the next step would be. My heart went out to, not only the main character but to all of the people recieving the tapes!! A must, must read!!!
 oh brother July 5, 2008
1 out of 6 found this review helpful
my sister tossed me the book, and after reading the book jacket, i was intrigued with what i thought was a very interesting premise. it vaguely reminded me of another book i loved (as simple as snow, by gregory galloway).
so i read it...think it took me two days. and let me tell you...it was extremely annoying. here's why...
first of all, every time i started to enjoy hannah's monologue, it would be constantly interrupted by clay thinking something stupid like "there's a sudden ache inside my chest," or best of all, when he is not thinking, but becomes so overcome, he pukes. give me a break. or when he rakes his hand across a metal fence in frustration and tears some of his skin.
please mr. asher! can i read for five minutes and develop any sort of flow without having clay interrupt? no? didn't think so. but thought i might ask anyway.
and if that wasn't annoying enough...hannah's reasons for suicide?? oh my goodness. all i can say, is that if the experiences in this book were that traumatic that they caused someone to commit suicide, then at least 25% of every high school class in america should be looking for a way to end it too.
look, i loved the idea about getting the tapes, and then passing them on. i LOVED when clay would interact with others who had already received the tapes, but there just wasn't any flow to the story. and i hated how in the end, you were left with this resentment for many of the characters, especially mr. poter, who was simply set up by hannah to be the final fall guy.
Amazing July 2, 2008
Wow. What a great book. Sad, but I didn't cry. It was more like the kind of sad where you can't cry. The kind of sad where you're partially in shock, like you just can't believe it even while you can.
Clay comes home from school one day to find a mysterious package waiting on the porch for him. He opens it, and inside are seven audiotapes, each side numbered. He places Cassette 1: Side A into the tape player and hears a voice he never thought to hear again: that of Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush, who committed suicide two weeks before. Hannah has thirteen reasons-thirteen people who affected her-why she killed herself. The tapes are making the rounds, heading to those people. Clay is one of them, and if he listens to the tapes, he'll learn why.
There's like nothing to say about this book other than that you should read it. I didn't want to stop reading it. I loved the way that it went back and forth between Hannah and Clay: Hannah tell her story, Clay telling his and adding his comments to Hannah's story. I loved how this book was more about the characters, more like short stories that were all connected. There was really no plot. It's about Hannah's struggle with herself and the people around her, but we already know that she kills herself. Now we just have to find out why.
This is definitely one of those books that affects you, the reader. It really changes your perspective about people and yourself. It really shows how even the smallest action, one that seems harmless, can be driving someone else to consider killing themselves. It's about learning to live with yourself, learning to live with your mistakes, seeing that you could have made a different choice but choose not to. And that there may not be any going back. You just have to face it.
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