Thirteen Reasons Why is a novel written by Jay Asher about an average shy boy named Clay Jensen returning home from school one day to find a box by his front door. When opening it he is surprised to find 7 cassette tapes. He soon finds out that these tapes were recorded by his class mate Hannah Baker, who he had a crush on, and who recently committed suicide. The tapes were mailed like a chain letter, one classmate with instructions to pass them from one student to another. On these tapes Hannah explains to 13 people how they played a role in her reason to kill herself, by giving 13 stories that each person was involved with. The stories start at the first person in her tapes. A boy named Justin who lied about what she and him did, and ruined her reputation and started all the negative rumors about her in school. These rumors lead a boy to put her on the list as “Hottest Ass in the Freshman Class”, causing her to become the object of sexual harassment. Her best friend Jessica left her alone , because of jealousy that Hannah is getting all the attention of boys, because of the list. Even though Hannah had no control of it. We also meet a conniving girl named Courtney, a boy who stood her up, a guy who stalks her and takes pictures of her without her knowing. Hannah witnesses a rape, a car accident that later killed a classmate, and a counselor that allowed her to leave even though he knew she was thinking about suicide. Each tape explains something that happened, and gave the readers an insight on her life. Fear of exposure and curiosity keeps all of the people listening to the tapes. Hannah states, “ A lot of you cared, just not enough. And that is what I needed to find out”(280). She thought she had no real friends, she thought she had no one. Clay throughout these tapes waited to find out what he did to her that landed him on the tapes” I did nothing wrong”(41), he kept telling himself because he knew he cared for her and she wasn’t really alone. Well I’m not going to tell you, that would be giving away the ending. 1) Do you think their was a way to save Hannah's life ? and if so how?
2) What would you do if you thought you knew someone that was thinking about suicide?
3) Was it really those peoples fault that Hannah killed herself or do you think it was something else?
