Banned Books Week Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Even though Thirteen Reasons Why was originally published in 2007, it’s on the Top Ten Most Challenged books in 2017 because Netflix adapted it into a series that became very popular and brought the book back into the spotlight. The series and by extension, the book, caused a lot of controversy because adults worried that it glamorized suicide and would lead to an increase in teen suicides.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Publisher: Razorbill
Released in 2007
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Publisher’s Description:

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush, who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice explains that there are 13 reasons she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.

Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a first-hand witness to Hannah’s pain, and learns the truth about himself – a truth he never wanted to face.

Thirteen Reasons Why is about a high school girl named Hannah Baker. At the beginning of the book, it’s been just a few days since she killed herself. Clay Jensen, a boy at the same school, receives a package of cassette tapes. On them, Hannah has recorded the thirteen reasons why she decided to commit suicide. Each reason is a person who has wronged Hannah in some way. The first tape informs Clay that if he received the tapes, that means that one of them is about him. He is to listen to all of the tapes and then pass them on to the next person on the list, the list of people who have hurt Hannah. If the people on the tapes don’t pass them on as instructed, then the tapes will be released to the public and everyone will know what they’ve done.

I want to get one thing out of the way – this book is not that well written. Asher is in serious need of an editor. He uses So.Many.Words. to describe the most mundane things. It felt like he had been given a certain word count he had to reach so he was going to put in as many extra words as he could until he reached it:

“I take the package into the kitchen and set it on the counter. I slide open the junk drawer and pull out of a pair of scissors. Then I run a scissor blade around the package and lift off its top.”

Just tell us you opened the damn package Clay! Or, when Clay is looking for something to play the tapes with:

“The garage! The stereo on the workbench. My dad bought it at a yard sale for almost nothing. It’s old, so he doesn’t care if it gets coated with sawdust or splattered with paint. And best of all, it places tapes.”

For god’s sake Clay, we don’t freaking care about the history of the tape player! I wouldn’t get this upset except that the entire book had this much superfluous, excruciating detail. Luckily, the story was engaging enough that I kept reading anyway. I really wanted to find out what those thirteen people had done to Hannah.

The justification I’ve seen used to justify the banning of this book is that it will put the idea of suicide into teenager’s heads. That idea is already there. I think that if your child is reading this book or watching the TV series, it’s important to talk with them about it. Read the book yourself. Watch the show with your kids. Keep your eye out for warning signs that something is wrong. Instead of banning a book outright, parents should make the choice for their own children, not everyone else’s.

I can’t end this review without mentioning that Asher was expelled from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators last year after they investigated allegations of sexual harassment that had been made against him. I didn’t know this until after I had already started reading the book. Luckily, I checked it out of the library so I didn’t give him any of my money.

That’s a whole other issue for another post on another day: Is it okay to appreciate and enjoy an person’s work, even when that person is an asshole?