Th1rteen R3asons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why is a very suspensful book by Jay Asher. While I was totally horrified at everything that was happening in the book, I was unable to put it down for practically 2 days straight.... and then I finished it so.....yeah. This book is great, however it does contain some adult parts in it (swearing and alcohol are only a few examples).
In this book, you hear the story from Clay, a teenage boy's (I would guess around 16 or 17 years old), point of view. The book gets rolling almost immediately when Clay recieves a set of tapes in the mail with no return adress on them. He immediately becomes curious and inserts the tape in his dad's old tape player. He is shocked at the voice he hears.
Through the speakers, he is hearing the voice of Hannah Baker. However, he denies the fact at first because Hannah is dead. She commited suicide just a few days ago. For the first few seconds of the tape, he doesn't understand why Hannah made the tapes, but then she explains herself.
Hannah has made these tapes to explain why she killed herself. However they are only supposed to be sent to the 13 people on "the list". Just weeks before she died, Hannah put maps in all of their lockers and they are supposed to follow the map as she explains the events leading up to her suicide. Reading through the first two reasons you will probably be thinking "Wow. This girl is really over dramatic", at least that's what I thought. Then I got further into the book. As she explained the snowball effect that made her kill herself, you realize that the little things, like rumors for example, are, in one word, dangerous, and the things happening because of rumors can snowball, or get bigger, and seriously affect someone's life. For example, at Hannah's school, a rumor was floating around school that she and a boy were together (you get what I mean right? Good.). Because of this rumor, boys started seeing and treating her differently than they had before. And before you know it, one thing leads to another and then... BAM!!!!!!!! Hannah's dead. Just like that. And now, because of the tapes, 13 people will know why.
While Hannah's story is very...dramatic, I think people really do go through things like this. It happens all around us, but we choose not to see it. My favorite thing about this book was that it opened my eyes to the world around me a little bit more. When Clay interupts with his thoughts, I started to get a little annoyed with him, but I realized he only made the book more real. I got emotional in certain parts of the book, and I don't mean just sad. Oh no. I was getting mad and at some points even extremely frustrated with fictional characters. (Yeah, yeah I know what you're thinking, but I'm not crazy. I promise.) I honestly loved this book, but, like I mentioned before, I would not recommend this book to everyone. Grade: A-