Reviewing The Book Titled "Thirteen Reasons Why"

This is an essay reviewing the book titled ‘Thirteen Reasons Why’ from a novel written by Jay Asher published in 2007 telling the stories of a teenage high school girl named Hannah Baker who killed herself by drinking pills as she was exposed to mistreatments and psychological depressions by her high school friends. Before Hannah Baker did what she did, she recorded seven audio tapes each containing side A and side B telling the events leading up to her death. After finish recording, she wrapped the audio tapes nicely, placed them in a little box and posted them through a nearby post office without her address written on it. The audio tapes passed through thirteen people, which was on her list who somehow had contributed to her death.

After two weeks of the death of Hannah Baker, Clay Jenson was returning from the school while suddenly he found a little box on his doorsteps. He took the box inside with him to the kitchen took a pair of scissor and open the box and by his surprise saw seven audio tapes. He asked his dad if he could use his boom box to play them. His father permitted him to use the boom box so he started listening to the cassettes.

Clay Jensen was shocked by hearing the voice of Hannah Baker who died recently. She began by saying “Hello boys and girls, Hannah Baker here, live and in stereo…I’m about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you are listening to these tapes, you are one of the reasons why. I’m not saying which tape brings you into the story but fear not if you received this lovely little box, your name will pop up, I promised”. Her instructions to listening on the recordings was pretty simple. She said rule number one is to listen and rule number two is to pass them on until it reaches the last person on the list.

To start with, cassette 1 side A, Hannah Baker tells the story about the betrayal of her first kissed with Justin Foley. Justin Foley accidently insulted Hannah Baker by spreading the sexual rumours and photos of their first meet at Eisenhower Park. In side B of cassette 1, tell us about Alex Standall who listed Hannah as the best ass in the freshman class purposely to make Jessica Davis jealous and ruining her relationship with Hannah and fortunately it worked out as he thought. However, Hannah said it was not too traumatic when the list came out and she was able to survived. She though it was a joke and people who had a copy knew it was a joke too. Nevertheless, what mattered was the aftereffect of what Alex did. For example, after Hannah was voted the best ass, it changed the way people see and approached her. Like the waiter in the Blue Spot Liquor. He touched Hannah unwantedly by grabbing her ass, wrist, and spun her to his shoulder and done all sorts of silly things to her.

In side A of cassette 2, Jessica Davis heard false rumours about Hannah been hanging out with Alex Standall. Therefore, Jessica Davis mistakenly accusing her in a public manner of her break up with Alex and her friendship with Jessica Davis destroyed. In side B of cassette 2, she tells the story of Tyler Down, a photographer who have been stalking her by taking the pictures several times outside of her window while Courtney Crimsen massaging her, eventually kissed each other, and spread the photos around the school.

Furthermore in cassette 3 of side A, tells what Courtney Crimsen did to cover up for what she did with Hannah Baker. After Courtney Crimsen ignored Hannah for a while in school, she asked Hannah to go out with her on a party only to make spoil Hannah’s poor reputation. In side B of cassette 3, she tells the story of Marcus Cole who was Hannah’s Dollar Valentine’s date. The date never turn out to be as planned. Marcus who based his thoughts on the rumours he had about Hannah as one nightstand who had sex with anyone who goes out with her. He humiliated and sexually assaulted her by grabbing her thigh and moving his fingers up her body but fortunately, Hannah resisted him.

In cassette 4 side, A tells the stories of Zach Dampsey whom Hannah has turned him down for trying to comfort her after Marcus Cole attempting to sexually assaulting her. So in revenge, Zach stole the encouraging notes (compliments) dropped in Hannah’s note bag by other students, which he thought Hannah probably might not deserve them. However, for sure, Hannah Baker was looking for motivations and these notes could be very helpful to what she was going through. More to say that Zach took away all her hope. According to side B of cassette 4, she recorded about what Ryan Shaver a poet did to her. He had stolen the poem written by Hannah dealing with her own struggles and published it out in the school and everyone discussed it and joking about her poem.