Reading Log 6 - Thirteen Reasons Why

Title: Thirteen Reasons Why
Text Type: Extended text
Author: Jay Asher

"Thirteen Reasons Why" is a young adult fiction book written by Jay Asher. The book is about a teenage boy named Clay Jensen who comes home from school one day and finds a box full of tapes addressed to him on his front door step. He listens to the tapes to discover that they were recorded by his classmate/crush Hannah Baker who had committed suicide recently. The tapes explained the thirteen reasons why she committed suicide.

In my opinion this book really makes you reflect on how we as people treat and talk to each other. This book really made me reflect on my actions in the sense that i realized how oblivious i really am of my surroundings. Especially the little things, like walking through the corridor at school i would walk past people without a single thought about who they were or what they might be going through. After reading this book I've realized that it is the little things that are most important, like smiling at people. It might make someone going through a hard time feel appreciated even if it's just for a second. For example i love this quote that Clay said about people being oblivious and not wanting to accept the fact that things like suicide happen "This is the type of school we go to, everyone is just so nice until they drive you to kill yourself".

In my opinion the most impact full chapter in Hannah Baker's whole story is when she went to the school counselor. Hannah baker was heavily depressed and her last resort was talking to the school counselor. She told him about a very person subject and instead of helping her or even asking her if she was okay he said "You can dwell over the fact that this happened or move on". This chapter hurt me so much because everyone, especially children look for authority figures when they need guidance and help. I felt as though he let her down when she needed reassurance the most. There were so many red flags he could have picked up. For Example Hannah said to him "I need everything to stop.Just...People.Life."

I think that we can learn a lot as a society from this novel. We need to make sure that people especially kids realize that it is healthy and acceptable to talk about your feeling. Things will always get better.