Thirteen Reasons Why

By: Jay Asher

Narrated by: Debra Wiseman, Joel Johnstone

Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©2007 Jay Asher (P)2007 Random House, Inc. Listening Library, an imprint of the Random House Audio Publishing Group

Critic reviews

“[Hannah’s] pain is gut-wrenchingly palpable.... Asher has created an entrancing character study and a riveting look into the psyche of someone who would make this unfortunate choice. A brilliant and mesmerizing debut from a gifted new author.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review and Editor’s Choice)

“Heavy but compelling.... Asher’s novel asks us to look at how petty cruelty can deal crushing blows.” (Miami Herald)

“It is a brilliant debut that will leave readers feeling a sense of remorse for Hannah, guilt for Clay, and hope for the lasting lesson of the story.” (Bookazine)

excellent

I listened to this audio book with a car full of teenage girls and although there are some graphic parts that made me uncomfortable there was so much to take away from this book and so much discussion , it was a powerful , gripping story with so many life lessons a must read for you and your teen.

Amazing

This book is short and doesn't take very long to listen to. but it captivates you from the first 5 minutes. I would recommend this book to anyone. and have recommended it to many people already.

Pretty Moving

I would not recommend this book to anyone who has trouble dealing with death or the concept of suicide. That being said, I think it is important that people read/listen to a book of this sort, just to reemphasize that everyone has their own story, and something you may think is trivial could just be the straw that breaks the camel's back. I thought the narration was excellently done. I'm glad there were two narrators, because that gave it the ability to sound more like a dialogue than someone just reading pages from a book.

It was alright.

After hearing all the hype about the book and the controversy on the news, I wanted to know why parents and teachers are agents it. I was disappointed. It did make me feel a bit depressed and angry. There were a lot that she went through and at her age it was something that mattered a lot. I just felt that the author was not able to translate the desperation that Hanna felt or the depression she was in. The story itself was good and the back and forth between the characters was annoying at times, but made the book more interesting. At the end I did not feel like I had a connection with Hannah.

Top 10 Most Important Books to Read

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Absolutely. The better question would be is whether I should prepare them for what they are about to embark on. It's so intense that I feel like one should be warned, but I would never want to deter someone from reading this important piece of literature.

What other book might you compare Thirteen Reasons Why to and why?

Caleb Roehrig's Last Seen Leaving is similar because it's about self-discovery. The main difference would be that Hannah (13 Reasons) and Flynn (LSL) move in the exact opposite direction, one in a negative and the other in a positive. Teenage angst, stress, etcetera abound in both of these books.

Which scene was your favorite?

Normally, I like this question, but this book is hard to answer this one; the subject matter is so devastating that I don't like the word favorite. I will say that the evolution that Hannah goes through is so pronounced, so when the end of the book is happening and Clay is shouting, even though he knows what's going to happen... I guess I'd say that was the most emotional part of the book for me.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

It's going to be a Netflix Original and that's why I picked it up originally (I am so glad that I did). "Thirteen Reasons, Thirteen People...What We Could've Done to Save Hannah Baker."--That's off the top of my head.

Any additional comments?

Before I get into my main point, I do want to say that I would give both narrators two different star ratings: Joel Johnstone (Clay) deserves a 4 and Debra Wiseman (Hannah) deserves a 3. She just was nowhere near as talented as Johnstone and I would've replaced her, honestly. ---This is my main point for this review: It doesn't matter if you're in high school, have children in high school, don't have children in high school... Basically, if you are a human being, you need to read this book. It's POWERFUL and I think that everyone needs to be much more vigilant so that this epidemic of both teen and adult suicides goes down significantly.

A Book That Everyone Should Read

It is definitely worth listening to the audiobook over reading it. It was done so well. The female narrator did such a good job that I felt as if I was the main character, listening to the tapes. I know that some people are staying away from it because of its subject, but this is honestly one that both parents and teenagers should read. It’s a good inside look to help people see who near them is calling out for help.

soul alone

very different from usual.
narration can be better.But really appreciate audible's effort but price pretty high

Awesome!

This is one of my favorite books. Both the readers did an awesome job and really made the characters come alive. Definitely recommend purchasing.

. . . wonderful.. .

I loved this book for the following reasons:
1) it showed what a happens to someone when they feel like what hannah baker felt.
2) it shows how suicide effects friends and family
3) it also shows how people react when a suicide happens
4) it doesn't lighten the fact of suicide at all
5) it bring awareness of suicide out to the public
6) it shows how much it hurts when the snowball effect is in action
7) it shows what it feels like to give up and that everyone has a list of crap and the people who caused the crap to happen in their lives
8) it shows what it looks like when someone is suicidal
9) it shows us that we shouldn't be afraid of talking to someone when we need help
10) it shows us that we should take responsibility for our own actions (unlike what Jenny did)
11) it shows us that there is allways someone who cares
12) it shows us that we shouldn't give up
13) if someone asks you for help don't let them down and don't let them walk away
these are the 13 reasons why I love this book

amazing

This book was amazing and so sad and touching and so relatable to in the feelings Hannah felt it really was an amazing book I can not say that enough thank you so much for such an awesome read!!!!