My first book of 2010! And not really the greatest book to start my year with.
Unfortunately, I rang in the New Year a little under the weather – most unfortunate as I was visiting my friend who had just come back from England for the holidays. In the first five minutes of our visit, I had to ask her to pullover so I could –most gracefully, of course– throw up on the side of the road. I spent three days recovering in bed and reading a book about suicide, not exactly the best cure.
13 Reasons Why is the debut novel of Jay Asher, a newcomer to young adult fiction who has spent most of his working life in bookstores – there is hope for me yet!
The book is cleverly written and designed, but lacks depth: it felt like nothing more than high school drama. It chronicles a teenage girls choice to commit suicide. Before her death, Hannah Baker made and mailed several tapes where she recorded the 13 reasons why she committed suicide. Each chapter is one side of a tape and is dedicated to one person who negatively, or sometimes positively, affected her life. In turn, each person named will receive the tapes and when finished with them, must mail it to the next person on the list or a copy of the tapes will become public, and everyone’s part in her death will be revealed.
The novel begins with the protagonist, Clay Jensen, emotionally and physically exhausted mailing the tapes to the next victim. He had just spent the entire evening listening to the voice of his ex-crush chronicle the worse moments of her life, which starred his fellow classmates. With the tapes he received a map outlining the location of these moments so he not only listened but saw what she saw as well. On his journey he meets past and future recipients of the tapes and knows that nothing will ever be the same.
I’m not sure if it’s because my teen years are well behind me or if it is the novel itself, but I could not empathize or relate to the characters as much as I wanted to. Clay was trying to hard to grieve and comprehend the death of his classmate, and his reactions to the tapes seemed contrived and melodramatic. Hannah’s reasons were too shallow. Some of them were horrifying, but most seemed almost run-of-the-mill high school experiences: bullies exist, rumours are abundant and guys can be jerks. A bigger, better person would have been able to take these experiences and do the right thing, while Hannah just wallowed in self-pity. I kept expecting a reason why she was wallowing but it never came, and after the thirteenth reason instead of sympathizing with Clay and Hannah, I was annoyed. Perhaps, I just wasn’t in the mood to be sympathetic towards others.
Asher is a good writer and has a great voice in his novel, he just needs to develop more substance behind his characters and their plots. Suicide is such a complex and deeply emotional topic that his novel paled in comparison.
If anyone has read this novel I would love to hear their opinions. I want to know if I missed something. I wanted to love this book because of its unique set-up – a chapter per tape, and a dust jacket with a detailed map on the inside, my favourite! – but I just couldn’t.
Living Literary 