A review by freshkatsu
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
2.0
Hi, my name is Hannah. I killed myself two weeks ago.
I was a typical teenage, attended a regular public high school, had a middle class family and what else....Hey Jay! Yeah you writing about my story over there! What other things did I do?
Um, ok, this is embarrassing. Jeez, I guess he should have read my Myspace.
So er, I'm here to explain why I killed myself, since suicide is a big deal in YA and all. You see, boys were really mean in my school. I don't mean the standard type of mean - you know, name calling and everything. But there was this guy that started RUMORS about me doing something naughty, like beyond kissing! Eww! Then there was this other guy who voted me for 'best ass' in a poll. WTF right? And my one friend slapped me and gave me a scar. See? It's here, the bit above my eyebrow?! Gross. And then someone ditched me at a party. What am I supposed to do other than swallow a bottle of pills? You know, I did this for the good of ALL teenage girls - people NEED to know their actions have consequences. You think spilling your lunch juice box on someone's shirt is no big deal? Think again! Your clumsy gesture is a deliberate retaliation! Maybe it's unconscious, I don't know. But it's wrong anyway! And there's nothing you can do that will make the other person feel better. He/she is marked for life by that purple stain.
What? Did you say THE COUNSELLOR? We all know they don't help. They're just stupid psych major graduates who sit behind their desks reading trashy romance.
Whatevs, this is too hard. Let me record it down. Do you think 8 tapes should cover it?
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We all know that the only appropriate way for teenagers to deal with these situations is to 1) whine or 2) whine on youtube. But that wouldn't be a bestseller now would it? And it only irritates me more with the suicide of Phoebe Price in the news. Suicide is not an excuse, people don't do it to guilt-trip other people (Narcissistic personality disorder is another story, I would have forgiven the author had he indicated such). It's appalling the way the subject is treated - you can either see the act as a melodramatic performance (victim blaming) or genuine, but only with pathetic so called 'reasons'. Hey Hannah, if you had the energy to plot 13 tapes outlining the villains who drove you to suicide, then please, use it to draft an article to a feminist magazine.
But damn it, knowing all of this, I still can't stop reading it. It's like....ARGH stop whining but why am I getting so angry and it's so interesting and I want to know what happens at the end and *shoots self in head*
Just kidding.
I was a typical teenage, attended a regular public high school, had a middle class family and what else....Hey Jay! Yeah you writing about my story over there! What other things did I do?
Um, ok, this is embarrassing. Jeez, I guess he should have read my Myspace.
So er, I'm here to explain why I killed myself, since suicide is a big deal in YA and all. You see, boys were really mean in my school. I don't mean the standard type of mean - you know, name calling and everything. But there was this guy that started RUMORS about me doing something naughty, like beyond kissing! Eww! Then there was this other guy who voted me for 'best ass' in a poll. WTF right? And my one friend slapped me and gave me a scar. See? It's here, the bit above my eyebrow?! Gross. And then someone ditched me at a party. What am I supposed to do other than swallow a bottle of pills? You know, I did this for the good of ALL teenage girls - people NEED to know their actions have consequences. You think spilling your lunch juice box on someone's shirt is no big deal? Think again! Your clumsy gesture is a deliberate retaliation! Maybe it's unconscious, I don't know. But it's wrong anyway! And there's nothing you can do that will make the other person feel better. He/she is marked for life by that purple stain.
What? Did you say THE COUNSELLOR? We all know they don't help. They're just stupid psych major graduates who sit behind their desks reading trashy romance.
Whatevs, this is too hard. Let me record it down. Do you think 8 tapes should cover it?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
We all know that the only appropriate way for teenagers to deal with these situations is to 1) whine or 2) whine on youtube. But that wouldn't be a bestseller now would it? And it only irritates me more with the suicide of Phoebe Price in the news. Suicide is not an excuse, people don't do it to guilt-trip other people (Narcissistic personality disorder is another story, I would have forgiven the author had he indicated such). It's appalling the way the subject is treated - you can either see the act as a melodramatic performance (victim blaming) or genuine, but only with pathetic so called 'reasons'. Hey Hannah, if you had the energy to plot 13 tapes outlining the villains who drove you to suicide, then please, use it to draft an article to a feminist magazine.
But damn it, knowing all of this, I still can't stop reading it. It's like....ARGH stop whining but why am I getting so angry and it's so interesting and I want to know what happens at the end and *shoots self in head*
Just kidding.