Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. “A young teen commits suicide and then mails audio tapes posthumously to people who must listen to her tell the reasons and why they were responsible for her death.Harrowing and heartbreaking teen lit that has been assigned as required reading in many schools.” Comments from a young adult: "I first read this book when I was 13 (yes, I have read it multiple times) and it is still one of my favorites. Written in the perspective of Clay Jensen, a friendly and unassuming boy who finds himself put on a list consisting mostly of liars, thieves, perves, and jerks who all somehow played a role in Hannah's suicide, it is riveting as Clay learns about how small incidents and rumors contributed to the death of his late classmate/crush while simultaneously waiting for his name to come up in a tape that will tell him what he did to push Hannah to take her own life. Normally, I'm not a fan of 'teen angst' type books and I find myself having a tough love sort of attitude towards the characters, but this book is realistic and does not focus on Hannah's pain and suffering the whole time, but rather on little things that eventually snowballed into deep depression. Since the book doesn't spend a lot of time actually describing her misery, it makes the book much more bearable and relatable. It gives great insight to how much seemingly harmless actions can affect someone and also tells how to identify signs of suicidal behavior (i.e. withdrawals from family and friends, significant changes in appearance, verbal hints, etc). Overall, it was interesting, compelling, and I couldn't put it down. In terms of length, word choice, etc it was fairly easy, but because of the overall theme of suicide and depression, the sexual content, and the small (but still relevant) portions containing underage drug and alcohol use, I would not reccommend this to anyone under the age of 13. Otherwise, this book is informative, emotional, and powerful while still being a page-turner."
