Friday, February 5, 2016

THIRTEEN REASONS WHY - Jay Asher [Book recommendation]

Book obtained from: Library, E-book

Description: Clay Jensen, the protagonist, comes home from school one day to find a box of audio tapes on his porch. They are recorded by a classmate, Hannah Baker, who died two weeks prior. The tapes tell about her life, the parts played by thirteen people, and why she decided to kill herself.

Plot: The book enfolds mostly over a 24 hour period. Clay listens to the tapes and learns why he and twelve other people contributed to the suicide of Hannah Baker.

Characterization: The characters are well developed and sound just like high school students.

Setting: A small town, not specifically named [that I noticed] but the theater was called Crestmont Theater. Most of the book takes place in one night at various locations throughout the town.

Other: This was an emotional read. Not what I usually enjoy reading, but I did like this book.

Overall: The way the book was organized was really unusual. Hannah “talking” on the tapes was printed in italics, and Clay's response and what he was doing were in regular type. The book alternated, sometimes as often as every other line, between Hannah on the tapes and Clay's immediate response. In the E-book version I read, there were no paragraph breaks or indentations. All lines were flush left. But it worked.

Grade: A-


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