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bestie_book_lover's review against another edition
- 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
andyy_222's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Moderate: Death, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol
hannahs1993's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Moderate: Bullying, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
yuze's review against another edition
- 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
eleanorrosecugal'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
unusuallyy's review against another edition
- 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
val_readsbooks4fun'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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Bullying
martumansilla's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Suicide attempt
virtualzac's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Toxic friendship
karla205'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
4.5
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment