Tolog Review: Thirteen Reasons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why
by Jay Asher
reviewed by Catherine Condit

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is the compelling story about Hannah Baker and her thirteen reasons why she committed suicide. When Clay Jensen receives a box full of old tapes labeled with numbers one to thirteen with a mysterious letter attached, he is suddenly brought into a seemingly never-ending story which all lead to one conclusion: the death of Hannah Baker. 

Clay Jensen was a boy who stayed out of the way and did not raise a lot of attention. His life was drastically changed when he got the tapes and he learned a valuable lesson through them. What may seem like a series of unimportant events can all tie together to have a big effect. The way Hannah’s tape recordings and Clay’s own thoughts are tied together makes the reading fun and vivid descriptions made it easy to see Hannah through Clay’s eyes and how he viewed it all.

The readers are told the story from Clay’s point of view which adds to the tension as we discover the truth at the same time as him. While I was reading this, I felt a lot of the stress that Clay felt and it gave me a better opportunity to connect with him. The story ends with a feeling of complacency and leaves it up to the reader to make more conclusions about the lessons Clay learned. 

I would recommend this book to anyone in eighth grade and above because it addresses mature topics such as suicide and sex. Although they are carefully discussed, it could still be a bit heavy for anyone younger. This book is very good and I would highly recommend to a friend. It was a fairly easy read but was also thought provoking. Jay Asher wrote an amazing book and I think many different people would enjoy it.