Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

One day a shoe box with seven audio cassettes shows up on Clay’s front doorstep. There is no return address, nothing to indicate who or why someone sent him the tapes. There’s really nothing to do but pop them in the tape player and start listening. He’s sent reeling when he recognizes the voice on the tapes as Hannah, his classmate who just recently committed suicide. Hannah says there were thirteen reasons why she killed herself and she’s going to go through every single one.

So this book has been getting quite a bit of buzz (I think it was mentioned on the mock Printz list that Joanna posted about earlier) and good reviews. It could have been really gimmicky and truthfully it was still sort of gimmicky, but it was an incredibly fast read that teens are going to gobble up. The thing I could have done without was Clay’s. Constant. Interruption. Of. Hannah’s. Narrative. She can barely squeeze out a sentence without him interjecting a thought. It got tiresome. Luckily there was plenty of suspense to keep you reading. You are almost desperate to find out what the other reasons are.

The other thing I could have done without are the crazy things that the cover girl is wearing around her feet. Seriously, what the hell are those things? They’re like a sheer nylon/sock/leg warmer hybrid. They’re absolutely frightening. If it’s cold enough for her to be wearing a tuque then for god’s sake put on some pants and maybe do up your jacket.