I go from reading about one Hannah (in Trouble by Non Pratt) straight into another. This time, it's a bit different from a teenage pregnancy and this time, it's a teenage suicide. Cheerful books I read. However, whilst suicide isn't the cheeriest of topics, this is probably one of the most inventively written books I've read.
Clay Jensen receives a parcel one day from Hannah Baker, who two weeks earlier, committed suicide. Inside are several tapes, each with recordings of the thirteen reasons why she killed herself. I tell a lie, the parcel has actually been sent from someone different who is featured on the tapes. He steals a Walkman and spends the night trailing across the city listening to these tapes. The only reason he got the tapes? Because he's one of the reasons Hannah killed herself.
Whilst reading this book, I picked up scents of a few other books that I couldn't help but compare Thirteen Reasons Why to. Paper Towns by John Green was one of the first, as he trails around after this girl in the many different places she's marked and the clues she's left. Weirdly, I also find myself comparing this book to A Song For Ella Grey. Tragedy is just the one word reason as to why I'm doing that. Fangirls of either of them, rejoice!
I was a bit put off by the layout of this book. The idea of using symbols to mark where the tapes are playing or not is good, and the use of the cassette numbers and Side A or B to mark chapters is also pretty nice, but the fact that whatever Hannah is saying is marked in italics really puts me off as well. It makes it harder to follow, as Clay is also providing his own commentary.
However, in the '13 Questions' interview at the end, the author, Jay Asher, said that he got the idea for this book from the multimedia guides you get in museums. He found it strange that something non-present knew what they were talking about and it correlated to what you were looking at. Why did I tell you that? Because I think that's the twist that makes this book what it is. If it were just a book about why a girl committed suicide, then this book probably wouldn't have been as interesting as it is. But it's the element where Hannah, even though she's dead throughout the entire storyline, is still present, that makes Thirteen Reasons Why as mystifying as it is.
I leave this review with saying well done to Jay Asher. I really enjoyed this book and it's a really well written novel. It was only whilst searching for this book on Google that I found out that Jay Asher collaborated with Carolyn Mackler to write The Future Of Us.
Thirteen Reasons Why isn't a love story. It's a story in it's own little dimension. And that's something that's hard to achieve. And as for a movie adaptation? Universal had them back in 2011, said Selena Gomez was to play Hannah and that's all we've heard. Keep your eyes peeled, fangirls…
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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