I read the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. This powerful, tear-jerking young adult novel all starts with the many double sided suicide tapes recorded by Hannah Baker on Clay Jensen’s porch, both young teenagers. These tapes take Clay and the reader through the story of Hannah taking her own life in her own words.
Clay tries to figure out why he could possibly be on the tapes and battles with himself about what he could have done to save and maybe even prevent Hannah’s suicide. In the midst of Clay trying to figure it all out, he listens to the stories of many other people who affected Hannah’s choice and strains to accept what others had done to her.

Jay Asher writes in a very unique way. He writes the whole back story of Hannah Baker’s experiences, and then writes the aftermath trailing behind Clay. There is double the emotional impact in the story and in the reader. I also feel like Jay wrote this book in-between two stories. The first story being Hannah Baker, and the second story being what Clay does about the tapes. Now that he has the first hand knowledge from Hannah Baker about bullying, people’s selfish actions, and overall depression symptoms, a new story sprouts and Clay has the capability of helping others and saving lives.
The theme in this book circulates around suicide, bullying, and finding the signs of people who are being hurt or have been hurt by others. It shows the reader what can really impact a person, and definitely gives the reader a tremendous amount that they can relate to. Also, the book shows the signs that people can look for in order to help those people who have been in hard situations.
This book has influenced me to think about my actions and pay attention to others. I made strong connections with both Clay and Hannah throughout both of their journeys. Life can really pull people down, I know that as a fact, and sometimes it’s hard to go on with life. It is now my job, and everyone’s job, to take the first step in recognizing those in need of someone. Hannah is not the only one who has faced the challenges she describes in the book, and however hard it was for the thirteen people to listen to the tapes, it was right of her to explain what happened to her. People need to take action and save a life.