When it comes to reading, the genre ‘young adult’ is not my favorite genre. But having a teen at home, I do end up reading quite a few books of that genre.
When the series Thirteen Reasons Why was aired on Netflix, it created a huge buzz and everybody was hooked on to it. I am not much of a TV person, and I was delighted when I got to know that the series was adapted from the novel by the same name.
So I bought the book and started reading immediately. Thirteen Reasons Why is a novel written in 2007 by Jay Asher. It comes under the category of young adult fiction. His book has appeared regularly on the New York Times best-sellers list for the past nine years.
Here’s a small excerpt from the book:
Clay Jensen returns home from school one day to find a mysterious box with name on it outside his front door. Inside he discovers a series of cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker- his classmate and crush. Only, she committed suicide two weeks earlier.
On the first tape, Hannah explains that there are 13 reasons why she did what she did- and Clay is one of them.
If he listens, Clay will find out how he made the list- what he hears will change his life forever.
Hannah, a high school girl commits suicide and leaves behind tapes to tell 13 people the 13 reasons why she did it.
Its a disturbing, sad and scary novel about suicide. It examines some of the issues facing the teens like peer pressure, bullying, indifference, depression etc. And the story also speaks about the dark side of teen life- suicides, drinking, sex, rumor mill, absence of adults and loneliness.
This book shows a different aspect to suicide. I’ve mixed feelings about this book, I know Hannah was treated unfairly but that’s no reason to commit suicide.
Suicide is not an easy and light subject to talk about, but the author did a great job writing about such a sensitive and difficult subject.
Some of the quotes from this book that I liked:
“You can’t go back to how things were. How you thought they were. All you really have is…now.”
“You don’t know what goes on in anyone’s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can’t be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person’s life, you’re messing with their entire life. Everything….affects everything.”
“One day your life will flash before your eyes, make sure its worth watching.”
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