Jay Asher's "13 Reasons Why"

          Thirteen Reasons Why is a book written by Jay Asher. Its copyright date is 2007. Here is a short summary and review of this book.
          Clay is a regular high school boy. He's a good student, a nice guy, and has a normal personality. When he gets a package in the mail one afternoon, though, everything changes. They are a set of tapes sent out by Hannah Baker, a girl who previously went to Clay's school before committing suicide. She had recorded tapes of herself telling the listener 13 reasons why she killed herself. Each of the reasons is partially caused by a person, which means that each reason is a person. If you were sent these tapes, that mean that you were one of the 13 reasons why Hannah killed herself. When Clay learns this, he is mortified, feeling sympathy for Hannah and is sorry that he did anything to her, however he doesn't know what he did. As he begins to listen to these tapes, he learns things about the other people that were reasons why. He discovers things about them that were better left untouched, and finds out things about himself that he never imagined were true, like what other people, such as Hannah, thought about him, and why he took part in causing her death.
          The main conflict in this is how Clay wants to help Hannah out, but can't. Because she is dead, there is nothing else to do, and Clay resents this and wished that Hannah could have come to someone else, like a therapist, or even to Clay. As he listens to her speak and explain her life out, he is sad because it's over anyway, when he could have helped, or when he could have been there for her. The conflict is more internal, and it shows a lot about Clay's personality.
          The theme in this story is repent. It is mostly shown through what I stated in the paragraph above, because the whole story is conflicts, whether it's Hannah's conflicts of Clay's. Clay feels repent for not helping Hannah, and Hannah feels repent for getting on the paths that she chose to be on.
          My own thoughts on this book were very complicated. The story was interesting, but it was written in a gloomy, boring tone. I disliked the book for its tone, but loved the book for its story. The book altogether is not boring, but I have read better things. I would say that it's not bad, but it's not spectacular. However, it leans more towards being a good book than a bad one, so on a scale of 1-10, I would rate it about a 5.5. i would recommend this book to teenagers who like books about reality, some comedy, and a bit of darkness. Thanks for reading. Tune in later!