Book Reviews 2017: Thirteen Reasons Why

**All reviews on Randomness With Rachel are done on a five star rating system. The reviews are solely my opinion and no one else's. Randomness With Rachel does not receive any incentives or compensations for reviews.** 

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

I read this book back in March and I've been meaning to post a review of it, but I have been lazy. With the majority of my social media feeds talking about the Netflix show based on it, I felt I needed to go ahead and post my review of it.

First of all, YES, I read the book before I watched the Netflix series (because I always try and read the book before I see a movie/show based on it). And yes, I mainly picked up the book because I knew a series had been made about it, and I wanted to read it first. I'm a nerd.

I'm not going to lie- this book sucked me in. I couldn't put it down. I started reading it one Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the day finishing it.

I've heard (meaning I've read other reviews) people complain about ALL THE DRAMA throughout the book but remember, this is a young adult book. Everything is dramatic to teenagers. What might seem like no big deal to an adult is earth-shattering to a teenager (don't you remember your teenage years?) Most teenagers feel that the world is against them.

If you have watched the series but didn't read the book, there are some pretty big differences. There are characters in the series who are not in the book. There are also plot lines in the series that are not in the book, so if you end up reading the book too, you might be surprised.

I like how the writing style went back and forth between what was going on with Clay and to Hannah speaking on the tape. Suicide (especially teen suicide) is a sensitive subject that no one seems to want to talk about, but I think the author handled it with delicacy and didn't downplay the seriousness of it at all. Even if someone leaves a suicide note (or tapes in this case) that doesn't mean that they explain every reason why they killed themselves. Some of the reasons might seem petty, but to that person, they weren't petty at all. It also stresses throughout the book that suicide is NEVER the answer. I don't feel that it glorifies suicide at all. 

MINOR SPOILER ALERTS AHEAD (but it won't ruin the book for you). 

Since the book is done in first person, we really only saw how Hannah's suicide affected Clay. I would have liked for some of the other characters to have shown or expressed remorse (or at least had reactions to receiving the tapes). 

I liked the writing style and look forward to reading other works from the author.

Book summary:

XOXO!