Thirteen Reasons Why, a Summary

Never before have I felt so in tune with a book as I felt when I read Thirteen Reasons Why.  The premise of the book is that a teenage girl commits suicide and leaves behind thirteen reasons why on cassette tapes.  The set of tapes is to go each of the thirteen people involved in turn.  One of the recipients of the set of cassette tapes is Clay, a guy Hannah went to school with and worked with.  He’s unsure of why he’s included in all of this. He knew Hannah, but not well, and he never did anything that could be construed as negative (or so he thought) to her.

Essentially there are two narrators. Hannah is the narrator of the tapes themselves interspersed with Clay’s reaction to the set of tapes. Despite the two narrators, the book isn’t choppy, is fast paced, and is extremely engaging.   

I could have spoilers, so if you’re one that’s sensitive to that, then you probably shouldn’t read further.

I have a lot of empathy for the female narrator.  She’s the victim of rumors, used as a weapon to get someone else back, witness to a few crimes, torn down, and her pleas for help are all dismissed. The only true connection she makes is with Clay, but it’s too late.  You want to fault Clay for not trying hard enough, but you can’t because he did even more than the average person likely would. 

The tapes that Hannah leaves behind are a blog of sort.  They are 13 interwoven stories that lead up to her culmination act of suicide.  And she forces the 13 people involved to listen to her story and their part in it.

I am a firm believer that we all have crap in our lives.  Being a teenager sucks; other teenagers suck. They can be cruel, misguided, vengeful, immature, irresponsible, and many other unfavorable adjectives. What is interesting is that most teenagers can put all that crap aside and move on.  And a few others can’t.  Suicide is an awful thing, and the main premise of this book is to increase suicide prevention awareness.  I think anyone who is around teens should read this book if even for that reason. 

Oftentimes I think the biggest teen suicide prevention technique is caring for a teen. Seriously, being there to listen, empathize, help in any way you can.  If they can gain some perspective on their issues and know that someone cares for them as a person, I think you can really make a connection and raise the self-esteem of a teen.  That’s why there’s always a special place in my heart for teenagers.  If I ever did teach, I would definitely choose high school.  I can find those kids that have internal struggles and reach out to them.  If they know that I care about them and they trust me, then maybe they have one less reason why.

I never seriously considered suicide. I was very close to a number of adults, mostly teachers but some mentors such as the staffperson to the youth commission I was on, my boss at the stockbrokerage firm, my co-workers at the doctor’s office.  I could talk to a number of adults who would understand. I was also close to a few peers. They may not have been the peers you would expect that a straight A, quiet, 16 year old girl would become close to. Still, I made a few close connections that really mattered. 

In my next few entries, I’d like to delve more into this book and the issues it brings to light.