Published by Razorbill on Oct. 18, 2007
Genre(s): , Young Adult, , Fiction, Teen
Format: Paperback/Audiobook
Pages: 288
You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past. The only way to learn the secret. . . is to press play.
Clay Jensen doesn't want anything to do with the tapes Hannah Baker made. Hannah is dead. Her secrets should be buried with her.
Then Hannah's voice tells Clay that his name is on her tapes-- and that he is, in some way, responsible for her death.
All through the night, Clay keeps listening. He follows Hannah's recorded words throughout his small town. . .
. . .and what he discovers changes his life forever.
I heard about the Netflix show coming out, so as a sucker for screenplays adapted from books, I rushed to read this one before the premiere. It's a young adult novel, so it wasn't exactly my pace; however the unique premise of the story held my interest immediately.
If you've watched the show at all, you know it occurs over a decent period of time. This is a key difference from the book which takes place all in one night, in which the main character has little to no interaction with anyone else. The other characters in the story exist entirely on a set of cassette tapes that the main character has made just before committing suicide.
While I applaud the bravery of taking on such a taboo topic of teen suicide, I felt that this story- presumably targeted toward teenagers- could have done a far better job on discussing the important considerations of this scary idea. For example, there is never any incorporation as to where a depressed, bullied, or suicidal teen should go for help, other than the school guidance counselor. There is no openness with parents on the matter or any other teachers, doctors, or persons of authority. Another problem I had with the book was that the tone of the tapes was very vengeful, as if suicide was this girls idea of revenge on her classmates for treating her poorly. Being that she made tape recordings of herself, she exists on every page of the novel, prohibiting the permanence of death from being real.
Teenagers reading this story, at their point in mental development, may not have a full understanding of the permanence of death; making the thought of a tormented young person reading this novel a scary one. Overall, it was an interesting and entertaining read; however, due to the sensitivity of the topic, I felt that it could have done a better job especially given the immaturity of the intended audience.
