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13 Reasons Why

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Book Review

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher has been reviewed by Focus on the Family’s marriage and parenting magazine.

Plot Summary

Clay Jensen doesn’t know why Hannah Baker committed suicide, but he’s about to find out. Before she died, Hannah recorded a set of cassette tapes, one side for each of the 13 reasons she chose to take her life. Each reason relates to a person. Each of those 13 people must listen to her tapes, then pass the set on to the next person. And Clay is one of them.

When the tapes arrive in the mail, Clay is confused. Aside from making out with Hannah at a recent party, he didn’t know her well. Despite her loose reputation, he really liked her, and he would never have done anything to hurt her. Surely there was a mistake; he can’t be responsible for Hannah’s suicide. But Hannah has threatened that the tapes will be made public if he doesn’t follow her instructions. So he pops the first tape into an old stereo system in his parents’ garage.

The first name on the tapes is Justin Foley, the first boy Hannah kissed. Clay knows him as an average guy who is popular with the girls. He also knows that Justin and Hannah did more than just kiss — or did they? According to the tapes, the rumors were false, spread by a boastful Justin. To Justin, the rumors meant nothing. But for Hannah, a newcomer, those rumors were the beginning of a reputation that would be impossible to shake.

Clay is hooked on Hannah’s story, but he doesn’t want to keep listening in the garage where his family could walk in at any time. Under the pretense of helping his friend Tony start his less-than-reliable Mustang, he steals Tony’s Walkman. Hannah has also left Clay a map, starred with significant locations that she will mention throughout the tapes. Clay walks to the first location while listening to the next tape.

The first star on the map is Hannah’s old house, now the home of an elderly man who was involved in a serious car accident earlier that year in which a high school student from Clay’s school was killed. The second name is Alex Standall, the boy who named Hannah “Best A–” in the freshman class. While Alex may have meant it as a twisted compliment, it only served to spiral Hannah’s reputation even lower. Boys now felt that they had the right to touch her whenever they felt like it. Clay remembers the girl who was voted Best Lips. He was mesmerized by them and even made out with her — all because of the list.

The third name is Jessica Davis, another newcomer who was friendly with Hannah until more false rumors (this time about Hannah and Alex) caused Alex and Jessica to break up. At the location of the third star (a coffee shop), Jessica scratched Hannah’s face, leaving behind a fingernail and a crescent-shaped scar.

The fourth name is Tyler Down, a peeping Tom who waited, armed with a camera, outside Hannah’s window. Hannah invited Courtney Crimsen (fifth name) over to help her catch the crook. Courtney cared more about using Hannah than she did about being friends. Courtney got Hannah to drive her to a party, then ditched her. And at that party, Courtney started new rumors about Hannah.

On the bus ride to Tyler’s house (fourth star), Clay runs into Skye Miller — his middle school crush. Over the past few years, she has isolated herself from the world, and Clay wonders why, but he gets off the bus without really talking to her. When he reaches the house, Tyler’s window is broken and duct-taped, and Marcus Cooley, Alex’s friend, is there with a rock. Clay refuses to throw it.

Listening to the sixth story, Clay learns that Hannah was Marcus’ “soul mate” on the Oh My Dollar Valentine survey. Marcus asked Hannah for a date at Rosie’s (next star), then almost stood her up. When he finally arrived, he groped her, even after she asked him to stop.

The seventh tape is the story of how Zach Dempsey stole notes of encouragement from Hannah during their peer communications class, and how the class refused to help when Hannah made an anonymous comment about considering suicide.

The eighth story is about Ryan Shaver, who stole one of Hannah’s poems and exposed it to public ridicule. Clay listens and continues to travel to each starred location — now with Tony’s help. Tony knows that Clay stole his Walkman, because Tony is the one Hannah asked to make the tapes public if her instructions weren’t followed. Clay thinks back to the times he was too afraid to ask Hannah out, and wonders if things would have been different if he’d only had the courage to speak to her.

The ninth story is Clay’s. Right away, Hannah admits that Clay doesn’t belong on the list, that he didn’t do anything wrong. She just wants him to hear her reasons and to know why she committed suicide. Hannah talks about how much she liked him and about the party where they lay on a bed and kissed and how she pushed Clay away because she was so afraid of getting hurt.

The 10th story is about Justin again. After Clay left the room but before Hannah could make her exit, Justin Foley and Jessica Davis lurched in. Hannah hid in the closet. Jessica was so drunk that she passed out before anything could happen. Justin left, but then reluctantly allowed his friend, Bryce Walker, to go into the room and rape Jessica. Hannah did nothing to stop it.

When Hannah wandered back into the party, she was visibly shaken. Cheerleader Jenny Kurtz (11th story) offered to drive her home. It was raining, and Jenny knocked over a stop sign. Hannah tried to convince her not to drive the rest of the way home and to report the downed sign. But Jenny refused. Hannah walked to a nearby gas station to call the police, but by the time she got there, it was too late — an accident had already occurred on the corner that was missing a stop sign. It was the accident involving the elderly man who lived in Hannah’s old house.

The 12th story belongs to Bryce Walker. Hannah, spiraling fast, was determined to make some bad choices. At an after party, Bryce asked Hannah to join him and Courtney in a hot tub — in their underwear. Courtney left, and Bryce started groping Hannah. She didn’t resist. He had sex with her. On the tapes, Hannah says that she was finally giving in to her reputation and that she was using Bryce to let go of herself.

The last tape, the 13th story, is about the school guidance counselor, Mr. Porter. Already determined to commit suicide, Hannah hopes he can talk her out of it. But he fails to get Hannah to open up to him, and she leaves. He doesn’t follow.

It’s now early morning, and Clay is finally done listening to the tapes. He mails them to Jenny Kurtz. The next day at school, Clay sees the world in a new light. He realizes that Skye is probably headed down the same road as Hannah. Clay is determined not to let that happen. When he sees Skye in the hallway, he walks toward her and says her name.

Christian Beliefs

On the tapes, Hannah tells Mr. Porter that he can take the tapes to h— and that she might see him there.

Other Belief Systems

None

Authority Roles

Clay’s mother tries to be involved in his life, but she too willingly believes his lies and excuses. Late at night, she brings him money to buy food at Rosie’s Diner, but even when she realizes that the tapes aren’t part of a school project, she doesn’t act. Obviously hurt by the lie, she still tells Clay that she trusts him.

Hannah’s parents notice her sliding grades and ask for weekly progress reports. They also ground her. Hannah deceives and disobeys her parents. She goes on dates when they are out of town, lies about boys and sneaks out of the house to go to parties after her parents are asleep.

Mr. Porter is a friendly teacher and guidance counselor. Despite his willingness to meet with Hannah, he fails to stop her from committing suicide. Hannah blames him for not caring enough. Mrs. Bradley is the peer communications teacher. She is universally liked and respected by her students, but she still misses the warning signs of Hannah’s impending suicide.

Profanity & Violence

Profanity includes the terms a–, jacka–, h— and p—. Crude words for private anatomy are used. God’s name is frequently misused.

A girl is raped. After contemplating other ways to commit suicide, Hannah takes pills and dies in a bathtub. Two boys have a fistfight at a party.

Sexual Content

Tyler waits outside Hannah’s bedroom window with a camera and takes pictures of her. In an attempt to catch the peeping Tom, Hannah and Courtney pretend to have a sexualized conversation. Hannah gives Courtney a back massage. Courtney pretends to find sex toys in Hannah’s dresser drawers and starts a rumor about them later. When the girls pull up the blinds, Tyler runs away, frantically trying to put his penis into his pants.

Hannah sits in her underwear in a hot tub with Courtney and Bryce. She doesn’t want to get out because her wet underwear has become see-through. She allows Bryce to fondle her breasts and genitals (very graphic description) and then have sex with her.

Students fill out a survey and pay to receive the names and phone numbers of their “soul mates.” A middle school-aged Clay has an erection when a girl offers to kiss him. Lists circulate about who is hot (or not) and unofficial “awards” are given for the best body parts.

Teens play spin the bottle. They kiss, lie in bed together and make out. High school boys repeatedly touch, grab and grope Hannah, even after she tells them to stop. People around her ignore her discomfort.

Discussion Topics

Get free discussion questions for this book and others, at FocusOnTheFamily.com/discuss-books.

Additional Comments

Smoking: The store clerk at Blue Spot Liquor is described as having the face of a walnut from smoking too much. Although Hannah only goes there to buy candy, ads for alcohol and tobacco cover the windows.

Suicide: Hannah is fatalistic, and she doesn’t claim responsibility for her actions, blaming the people around her for her decision to take her own life. While this novel condemns suicide as a poor choice offers suggestions for suicide prevention, it also validates the notion that if a person commits suicide, he or she will have the power from beyond the grave to make people pay. If part of the allure of killing oneself is that people will feel horrible for what they did, then this story presents suicide as an effective tool for achieving that goal.

TV Review Tie-In: Producers sometimes use books as a springboard for TV shows. Because of this, a TV show may differ from the novel. To better understand how this book and the TV show differ, compare this book review with Plugged In’s review for 13 Reasons Why.

You can request a review of a title you can’t find at [email protected].

Book reviews cover the content, themes and worldviews of fiction books, not their literary merit, and equip parents to decide whether a book is appropriate for their children. The inclusion of a book’s review does not constitute an endorsement by Focus on the Family.


For more on how to talk to your children about the subject of suicide, check out Focus on the Family’s Parent’s Guide to 13 Reasons Why.