Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Imagine one day finding a package at your door. Now, this normally wouldn’t be a big deal, right? Well, unfortunately for a high-school student named Clay Jensen, it’s no ordinary package. The package Clay finds is simply marked with his first name “Clay”. Seeing the box, Clay notices that the box has been tossed around as if many others have handled it. What he finds in the box is very interesting; it’s a box full of Th1rteen cassette tapes, marked with numbers one to thirteen.

Clay’s intrigued by the old cassettes, so he goes to his garage where his dad keeps a dirty, paint-splattered radio. He starts on the first tape and instantly hears a familiar voice, his crush Hannah Baker. Normally when Clay hears Hannah his heart skips a beat, but this time his heart skips for a different reason… Hannah Baker is dead. Yep, that’s right; Hannah had committed suicide weeks before, but had recorded tapes for the Th1rteen people who caused her to kill herself. Of course after hearing this, Clay becomes white with fear as the color drains from him. As he listens on, Hannah informs her listeners that each tape contains the story behind each person.

At this point, you might wonder why the first person through Clay had even bothered to pass on the tapes. You would think they would get rid of the tapes, but Hannah figured that. In order to fully get her message across, she had planted a separated box of tapes to a fourteenth person, who would release the tapes publically if the original package didn’t make it. Skipping ahead in the book, this person’s name is Tony, a neighborhood car fanatic.

Clay goes through each tape, listening carefully to each word. The first tape was for Justin Foley, Hannah’s first kiss, who, after the ...

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...nishing the book, I noticed the reoccurring theme of “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” It’s a very cliché theme, but for this story fits perfectly. Hannah Baker in her tapes consistently blamed people for how they treated her, people like Justin Foley, Alex Standall, Jessica Davis, Courtney Crimson, Zach Dempsey, Ryan Shaver, and Mr. Porter. The numerous examples clearly show the reader that your actions, whether they seem big or not, can seriously affect those around you negatively or positively.

Overall, I loved reading Jay Asher’s book because of its many underlying meanings and sense of imagery throughout the entire book. I know I’ve spoiled a lot of the book, however my summary doesn’t even begin to greatly show Asher’s work. As summer approaches and school passes, I hope to see more books that show as much meaning as Th1rteen r3asons why.