13 Reasons Why

NOTE: I still have to review The Bell Jar, which I had finished earlier last week. Silly Jenn!

There are 13 tapes.

There are 13 reasons for Hannah Baker's suicide.

My expression when I found that out: Whoa.

I basically sped through this book the way Clay listened to those tapes, only taking a break every once in a while. What can I say? The author has an amazing way of writing. I’m pretty sure that he captured the essence of a girl that was feeling so much stress and pain perfectly.

I might as well start with the good things, because you know. There always have to be bad things unless it’s Harry Potter. But that’s the only exception, I swear.

The writing style was amazing. As I said before, it captured the essence of a suicidal girl. The author could write like how a teenage girl would speak. And a literate teenage girl, thank god. He captured all of the spite and hate and wistfulness that Hannah must have felt, all the regret and tears that she had been through. I think this was one of the reasons I was completely hooked onto this book.

The plotline was a lot different than your usual suicide books. Usually, it’s a close friend or a sibling or a significant other of the suicidal character mourning and slowly recovering. Come on, you know we’ve all read those books. But in 13 Reasons Why, you hear Hannah instead of the speculation that comes from all of the other characters. You know, the hate and pain and all that crap that you have to read about over and over if you’re a book fanatic like I am.

Now, onto the bad things. :\

The scenarios were a bit… unrealistic. Not like all the touchy-feely stuff, no, not that. That definitely will happen to someone in their life. I have to admit, all of the bad things that were piled onto Hannah were awfully realistic. Friends come and go and perverts will be there. Of course. But you’re not gonna have people perving on you with crappy friends and everything, all in less than two or three years. It just seems a bit unrealistic, if you ask me.

The formatting bothered me. It constantly switched from regular font to italics, italics italics italics. It was easy to know whether Clay or Hannah was talking, but still, it bothered me a lot. It’s nothing terrible, but I don’t know, I guess I’m just an easily bothered person. :P But I don’t know, I guess it was the most convenient way to do it.

Also, suicide is kind of a common topic. In Chasing Brooklyn, Gabe committed suicide. It has to happen in every other book I read. It's so... cliche nowadays.

Authors of the world: Imagination is endless. SO STOP WRITING ABOUT SUICIDE. I'm bored of it.

Okay, so that’s about it. I would highly recommend this book. It’s a fast read, and I’m sure you’ll get through it as quickly as I did, too, so you won’t have to go through the torture of reading a terrible book really slowly. Yay, books!

My rating: 4 stars
  
Five books read, fifty-five to go. 

Jenn wins?

Not really.