Hannah Baker is dead. She committed suicide two weeks ago. Every morning, Clay looks at her desk in the center of the first period class he shared with her and wonders why she did it. Until one afternoon when he comes home to find a shoebox addressed to him sitting on the doorstep. Curious as to what it may be, he opens it and finds seven cassette tapes wrapped in plastic without a note. Clay remembers that his father kept an old cassette radio on his workbench in the garage. He places the tape with the blue number one in the corner into the player and waits for the sound he wasn't expecting.
"Hello, boys and girls. Hannah Baker here. Live and in stereo." He can't believe it. Hannah has been dead for two weeks. How is this happening? Scared, but still wondering what this could mean, he continues to listen. Hannah goes on to explain that each of these seven tapes represents the thirteen reasons why she killed herself and if you're one of those receiving these tapes, you contributed in some way to her ending her life. She's not doing this to give you her life story, but explain every reason why she's ending it. There are two rules that go along with these tapes: 1) you listen and 2) you pass them on. If you don't pass them on, Hannah has an insurance policy. Should the tapes stop their cycle, the tapes will be released in a very public way and who would want that?
Starting with the first few weeks she came to this town all the way down to the very last day of her life, Hannah sets the record straight of all the rumors and reveals just how much people have to hide.
Incredible. Stunning. Engrossing. Breathtaking. I don't even know which word would be best suited for this book. It was just that amazing. It was interesting to hear her story while seeing the reaction it had on Clay, one of the people the tapes made their way to. You kept reading because you wanted to know how things got to where they were and you, along with Clay, wanted to know her thirteen reasons why. I gasped quite a few times because it's sad that the sort of stuff she's talking about is realistic in high schools today. People are vicious and people don't realize the power they possess when they open their mouths or turn away. I just cannot get over just how great this book was. READ IT.
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