Asher, Jay - Thirteen Reasons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

My favorite character of this book is Clay Jensen. He is a friend of Hannah Baker, the girl who killed herself. After the death of Hannah, he received a box full of tapes, 7 tapes, each one with a number on each side, except the last one. These tapes were made by Hannah to make people understand the thirteen reasons why she killed herself. Each tape is for one specific person and one of them was for Clay. Listening to them, he discovered all the horrible things that Hannah’s friends did to her. He has always been a quiet nice guy, who will never do bad things. After those tapes he changed. He became mad with all the people Hannah named on the tapes. He starts to plan something against them just to explain to them what they really did and make them think about it. When he listened to his tape, he finally understood why Hannah made those tapes for him. Hannah didn’t say bad things about him, she was just so jealous of his perfection in everything. She was jealous that everyone loves him and no one said something bad or offensive about him. The last words that she said for him were “I am sorry”. Clay was a really good friend; he tried to help her. Maybe he could have prevented her suicide if she had opened up to him. Clay remained the same guy that he was before, without the necessity of hiding something that he did. He was different from the others that were on the tapes. He also helped Hannah’s parents for the process against the school that didn’t notice Hannah was feeling really bad, and against Bryce Walker, the rapist of so many girls at the school, including Hannah and Jessica Davis, her best friend. Clay did this not for looking better in the eyes of the others but just for his friend: Hannah Baker.

The ending

I liked the ending because it’s an example of how justice and friendship can win almost all the time. The story ends with the end of the process. The school won and Bryce Walker was arrested. At the prom, all the people who were named by Hannah on the tapes were together for stop thinking about what they did to her. They were having fun, when another guy tried to kill himself. Fortunately, the avoided him to do it. He was called Tyler Down. Tyler was one of the name on the tapes; he was the photographer of the school’s yearbook and he was always bullied by everyone for this. After Hannah’s tapes he tried to follow her, thinking that could be the best solution for all his problems. The others stopped him before doing the terrible thing that he wanted to do making him thinking about how wonderful life can be. They didn’t want to make that terrible mistake. Not again, not the same one.

My opinion

I recommend this book because it’s about life. It’s about how the life of a teenager could be hard and difficult. It’s about fake friendships, fake relationships and arguments with parents. But also about how real friendships, real relationships and parents can save a teenager’s life. It shows how actions are connected with someone else feelings. It wants to teach to think before act, help people and talk with them before it’s too late. Everything has a consequence. Everything. Even the worst thing such as suicide has. Personal life and feelings, people’s feelings and lives are somehow connected. Always.