Publish Date: October 18, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-59514-171-2
Pages: 304
Cover Design: Christian Funfhausen
Cover Photo: Getty Images/Ryan McVay
Jay Asher hit a homerun with his first novel. It's amazing...simply amazing.
I need to share a couple things here before I talk about the book: 1) I'm beginning to rethink how much my sister loves me as she keeps sending me books that make me cry. 2) in 7th grade my Reading teacher ran out of things for the highest reading group to do so she taught us things like speedreading. Why is that important? Because this weekend I read 2 books, one was 562 pages and one was 289 pages, I also attended a Saturday class, slept 8 hours each night, did housework, went out to dinner, hung out with my family and did homework. So...it took me an entire week to read this book. It's a slim book, only 288 pages. I had to keep putting it down because the author kept hitting on those small things that happen to a lot of teens - those things that we try (or tried) to shove back in our minds and hearts and forget about.
Hannah Baker committed suicide. It wasn't due to any one thing, it rarely is. It was all those little things, building and building until she couldn't take it anymore.
But Hannah decided that her death shouldn't be for nothing. She wants the people that contributed to hurting her to know and understand what they and the others did. She records her story on cassette tapes and mails it off to the first person with a list of who to send it to next.
Do the recipients follow directions? Better yet, do they learn anything?
Parents, teachers, counselors, teens...everyone should read this and hold the message in their hearts.
There's an excellent blog post about this very subject over on Auntie Heather Brewer's blog - go check it out here: http://heatherbrewer.com/blog/2011/03/16/the-dark-place/
Note: THIRTEEN REASONS WHY comes out in paperback in June 2011 - great chance to pick it up if you haven't already. Word on the street is that the movie will come out in 2013, no actual date yet. Who'll be in it? I don't know, but rumor says Selena Gomez...who knows?
I LOVE THIS BOOK! Sorry for my yelling, but it had to be said. This is possibly one of the best books I've ever read!
ReplyDeleteChloe - I'm so glad you enjoyed it too! It's a hard book to read, but one I think that the schools should use to combat bullying.
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