Review Detail

Reader reviewed by bookworm9

When Clay receives a box of audio tapes in the mail, he's shocked to find they're a narrative from Hannah Baker, a classmate-- and crush-- who recently killed herself. Then he's horrified when she says these tapes have come to him for a reason-- because he's one of the thirteen people who led her to her decision.

Over the course of a long and tortorous night, Clay listens to all thirteen tapes, which go into detail about what caused Hannah's suicide. The book is set up like an eerie dialogue, as Clay responds to Hannah's words, but she obviously will never hear him.

There are a few twists in the narrative, but the way the story is told is the novelty, not the story itself. Clay is guilt-ridden but otherwise non-descript, and Hannah is bitter and self-pitying. The ending is not the greatest (a little too neat in its parallels), but it's an interesting, if pretty depressing, read.

(I would call it a fourteen and up book, though... definitely not for twelve year olds!!)