Friday, July 14, 2017

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Synopsis

Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Author: Jay Asher
Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary/Mental Illness
My Rating: 1/5
Add To: Goodreads

You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret. . . is to press play.
Clay Jensen doesn't want anything to do with the tapes Hannah Baker made. Hannah is dead. Her secrets should be buried with her.
Then Hannah's voice tells Clay that his name is on her tapes-- and that he is, in some way, responsible for her death.
All through the night, Clay keeps listening. He follows Hannah's recorded words throughout his small town. . .
. . .and what he discovers changes his life forever.


My Thoughts
★ Star

And truthfully, I don't know what they could have said to sway me either way. Because maybe I was being selfish. Maybe I was just looking for attention. Maybe I just wanted to hear people discuss me and my problems.


Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Hannah Baker! That quote above is exactly all this book is about.

Thirteen Reasons Why... Oh how I hate thee - let me count thy ways. 

If you read this book and didn't get a headache, I want to question the function of your brain. The constant go between of point of views and of italic and normal text nearly killed my eyes. There was nothing separating them so if you read fast enough it all runs together and it is just annoying. 

I had said over and over and over that I would not read this book but I ended up winning a giveaway of a stack of books and 13 Reasons Why ended up being one of them. Seeing this book itself kept me in panic attacks because I had heard so many terrible things - triggers
but the more I sat and thought on it, I did want to read it, I wanted to be able to tell my friends why they shouldn't read this book because of those triggers on certain pages. I thought to myself, it'll be hard but I DO want to help - if that makes sense. 
It took me about 4 days of panic attacks to finally dive in and by chapter 3, I was no longer in panic. I. Was. Pissed.

I really expected this book to have a deep meaningful outcome - that would just leave you haunted because of the terror your read. But... that didn't happen. 

Hannah Baker has 13 reasons why she committed suicide. 
-grab your pitchforks now, because I'm sure I am about to piss a lot of fans off-
Her reasons were pathetic. At one point of the book one of the guys says "She was just looking for someone to blame" and I hate to agreed with him, but I do. 
DO NOT GET ME WRONG!
Suicide is not a joke or something to take lightly. But literally everything that happened to Hannah - was things that happen to EVERYONE in high school. People are mean. No ifs ands or buts. Whether you are in school, at work, in a store, or even talking online - people are mean. It happens to everyone - but you don't see people killing themselves over it - and a lot more people go through worse that Hannah ever did. 

Hannah just seemed spoiled she wanted to be famous-popular. She reminded me of all those women from the 20s-30s who committed suicide because they couldn't be actors like they wanted to be. And because that didn't happen and people were mean to her by spreading "rumors" she decided to kill herself. 

-I'm sure I am gonna catch a lot of hate for this but I really have to say it, the whole suicide thing was just stupid to me. Why? Because it took her months to do it. Took her weeks to to make her tapes. And I am sorry but when a person is really wanting to end their life - they do it within 24 hours. Trust me, I would know because I have been there - a lot of my friends have been there. So that was just off to me 

I also hated that the term suicide was called "disgusting". It's not. It's heart wrenching. Calling it disgusting is just adding more stigma.

This may contain minor spoilers so reader beware, if you don't mind - keep reading.
I hate Hannah. Her reasons to end her life were asinine. She could have stopped someone from being raped but she didn't. She sat there and let it all happen. To make matters worse - later in the book she gets in a hot tub with him, knowing damn well what he was capable of and KNEW what would happen - but yet it is still his fault - even though in addition she admits to not telling him to stop, so he didn't - again - he was still to blame. 

She puts the blame on SO. MANY. PEOPLE. like they were suppose to be able to read her mind. 

The last person on her list is the one who kinda tipped the scale and push her over the edge - when all he did was try to help. He gave her options: press charges, confront him, or let try to let it go (aka therapy) and because she didn't like those options, she added him to her list and killed herself and all I can think is .... "are you serious? What else were suppose to be offered? No one can rewind time" 

Most everything that happened to Hannah could have been avoided if she used even HALF of her brain. So no one is to blame but herself. No one can read minds and how she talked made it seem like everyone should have read hers. Even when she "pleaded with her eyes" - Okay yeah no. I'm sorry. People that see pleading are called empaths. Most people than not CAN'T READ FACES!!! So you can't blame them for something they can't even do. Good grief! 


This whole book was a mess. It sets a HORRIBLE example for teenagers, heck, for ANYONE who reads this really.

4 comments :

  1. OH MY WORD YES YES AND YES!! I haven't read the book or watched the TV series, but I've read all about the controversy and articles from both sides, and your review echoes just what I think as well. It's excellent :)

    Amy @ A Magical World Of Words

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. ^_^
      And yeah, I really think most people didn't even read it. I think they watched the show and just go off what the show did. I'm sure the show is more dramatic than the book.
      Thats just me though. Lmbo. I doubt I'm ever gonna watch the show. I'd like to stay sane. XD

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  2. I read this book so long ago and I have forgotten so much of it I don't get to speak my own opinion. I have to reread it. I do think it didn't represent suicide that well and, like you said, there is a lot Hannah could have prevented. But I don't recall finding it so awful. I'd have to reread it, as I said.
    Thanks for the review!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you :)
      Did you write a review when you read it the first time? I'd love to read your thoughts on it. πŸ’œ

      Delete

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