Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Book Recommendation - 13 Reasons Why

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Thirteen Reasons Why

By Jay Asher



Blurb from Goodreads: "Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker—his classmate and crush—who 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, he’ll find out how he made the list."

Guys, this is the kind of book that you finish the entire thing before you even realize you're more than 100 pages in. Seriously. I flew through this book, unable to stand the anticipation of what was coming next.

It was a one-nighter.

The beginning was a little awkward. You start out at the post office, with Clay sending the package on, and then jump back to when he received the package. It threw me off at first, but I caught on eventually. lol

Either way, the things you learn about what happened to Hannah and why Clay is mentioned in the tapes...it's incredibly moving. At times I would be angry at Hannah, and other times I was angry at some of the other characters. The whole time, however, I felt nothing but sorry for Clay. He is such a likable character -- easy to relate to.

This is the kind of book that really teaches a lesson along with the story, but you don't realize it until later when you're still thinking about it.

Definitely a must read.

4 comments:

Alicia Gregoire said...

This, like everything else, is on my TBR. I'm glad you reviewed it because I know I have to read it before the year is out.

Anonymous said...

I've heard about this book. Heard great things in fact. It seemed like it might be a bit hard to read -- i.e. uncomfortable, painful, sad. Was it?

Also, I did your 6 Lies & a Truth today at http://sdennard.wordpress.com. :)

Holly Hill said...

Alicia- You'll love it.

Susan- it was sad, but not overwhelmingly so. I didn't cry at all reading this book actually, and I'm a very sensitive person. Some parts are more painful than others, but Asher never lets you dwell on it for long. That helps.

LTM said...

wow! Thanks, Holly! I keep looking at this book, but I just never picked it up b/c I didn't think I'd like it... (This and BEFORE I FALL.)

So it was THAT good, eh? Hmmm... :o)