Review: 13 Reasons Why (Spoiler alert I guess)

Plot summary from goodreads:  "Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.

Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers."

I've heard many good reviews about this book from peers, so I decided to give it a try.  I found this book to be very unique and I liked it, however, I did not love it. What I found unique about the book was how Jay Asher was able to swap back and forth between Clay's narration and Hannah's cassette tapes, without making the story confusing.  I also liked that, unlike most books, the reader got a chance to find out what was going through the victim's mind, Hannah Baker, during her path to suicide, rather than hearing about her life through another person's point of view.  Jay Asher also kept the book very engrossing and suspenseful for readers.

I did not love this book simply because it made me very upset in some parts of the book.  What upset me the most was how Hannah pretty much blamed all the people included in the tapes for why she killed herself.  Her suicide was her decision, and just because these people did her wrong does not mean that she had to do what she did because of them.  I'm not trying to come off as insensitive because this is just my opinion about the book, and I understand that people handle stress and situations in their own way.  Some people she had the cassette tapes sent to never did anything to her at all.  But the tapes were sent to them anyways because their names were brought up.  For example, the narrator, Clay Jensen, was very nice to her but she made him feel terrible for not talking to her as much as he should have.  She left the world making these people feel guilty, and it seemed like her prerogative was to get back at them than to simply explain why she did what she did.  Hannah had several occasions to stand up and tell somebody what she was going through, but she never took the initiative to do it.  She had subtle cries for help, but it almost seemed like she didn't really want help.

 I give this book 3.5 stars because, while it was suspenseful and dramatic, it just wasn't really all that great to me.