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crusoe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I love the stylistic choice of having the story be told through tapes. Clay reacting to them in real time -especially during his own tape- makes the story conversational. It highlights different perspectives on the same events that happen in Hannah's life.
Negatives. One thing that I miss that the Netflix series does better, (even though it sensationalizes suicide far more than this book,) is that this book does not show the fallout of the tapes among those on it. (Think of Jessica and the night at the party or the harassment Tyler endures because of the tapes). Ignoring 'the snowball effect' of the tapes on the people on them while making this snowball effect central to Hannah's argument feels misguided. Then again, Hannah is not a perfect character and was never meant to be interpreted as such.
Quote. I guess that's the point of it all. No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push all the same.
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Stalking
Minor: Misogyny and Alcohol
716a_m's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Blood, and Sexual harassment
bestie_book_lover's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Stalking
faithmccollum's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Sexual violence, Suicide, and Sexual harassment
kokoalaframboise's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Stalking, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Car accident
yuze's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment
marcusbryan777's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Death, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Sexual harassment
crabinspace's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Vomit and Car accident
shyleek's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Also seeing the reaction of the person listening to the tapes offered a unique perspective.
Asher gave us the opportunity to explore suicide and mental health from both perspectives... The victim and the ones left behind.
Graphic: Body shaming, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
unusuallyy's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
i'm going to preface this by saying that this is a two-sided book. for some people, it's been a great help and has connected them with the characters and made them feel seen. for others, it's been the opposite.
for me, it was amazing at first - that's why it became my new favorite book for a couple of months and i'd left a five star review here. but then i noticed the issues.
i came back to common sense media and goodreads, and i noticed all the negative reviews about hannah and her being a vengeful little a-hole. and these were true. upon rethinking the book's plot, i came to several conclusions:
1) while hannah's thoughts could be justified (i'd had thoughts based on social issues before) depression, ptsd, or getting help was never discussed. it didn't provide another way out. there was no hope from the start, making it an unrealistic depiction of real life.
2) it makes all the kids in the high school seem like dickheads, and when i read it, i was in seventh or eighth grade (where i live, this is still 'middle school'). this made me worry much more about high school, and whether or not everything was going to go okay. normally it's just a few people who are being terrible; hannah's point of view made everyone (except perhaps clay?) awful people.
3) hannah pins the blame for her suicide on her old friend who drifted away from her...and includes in her 'reason' tape that one of the reasons she's gone is because her friend got raped?? that makes no sense whatsoever. why did something that happened to someone else ... ??? idk, mate. maybe it's because she chose not to intervene and feels guilty, but that was really her fault, not jessica's!! she doesn't even send a tape to the apist, either. that's practically victim-blaming.
4) it portrays school counselors as unhelpful, and not good resources for change. sure, the new 'school counselor' is also the english teacher, and perhaps not professionally trained for such a job. but that was no reason to write this counselor as one of the reasons! from what i've experienced, school counselors have been fairly helpful, and painting this character as just a bit better than vecna's puppet in stranger things season 4 is not helpful!
5) it's an amalgam of ideas, not planned to work together very well. the cassette tape idea from the museum asher mentions is smashed together with a random notion to make something involving the "baker's dozen". this is a novel about a young woman's suicide - there shouldn't be any jokes to it! suicide is a serious issue, and it almost feels like this book generally treats suicide as a nonserious, valid way of getting out and getting revenge - which leads into my next point...
6) it romanticizes suicide. this book inspired my idea to make my own thirteen reasons why list, and had me considering following in hannah's footsteps and getting revenge on the people who'd made my life worse. honestly, such an idea should never be planted in teens' heads - it can have devastating consequences.
7) it insinuates the idea that people who are depressed or considering suicide have always a concise list of developed, separate reasons before going through with it. this makes no sense, and from personal experience the reasons for going through with it are never distinct or separate from one another and they kind of bleed together. through the haze, none of it really made sense or was 'reasonable' at all.
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cursing, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment