Blog Post #6: Thirteen Reasons Why

Five Reasons Why Thirteen Reasons Why is an Unrealistic Story

     The best-selling novel Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is about a teenage girl who commits suicide and leaves behind 13 tapes to 13 people, explaining to them that they are the reasons why she killed herself.  This book is a very serious topic, and I find it difficult to insult a book for being unrealistic because of its sensitivity to many.  However, this work contains many aspects that are just not-believable events, and it should be shared.

1- Clay is Too Perfect:

      Clay, the main character, narrator, and arguably the protagonist, is the first reason why the novel Thirteen Reasons Why is improbable.  Throughout the book we see more and more of Clay and the further we get, the more perfect he seems.  In the entire duration of the story we do not see one flaw of Clay.  He treats people nicely, is depicted to be good-looking, never did anything questionable to other characters, respects his parents, and has a good chance of being his school's valedictorian.  It's normal for people to posses some of these qualities but highly unlikely that a person could have them all.  For example, we see a quote from Clay that states, "It always makes me want to grab him by the shirt and push him until he lets the girl go."  This shows that Clay respects girls and protects others.  This is obviously an admirable quality.  In the rest of the book we find that the only other descriptions of Clay are positive.  In real life, everyone has some sort of flaw in their reputation. 

2- Throwing Blame Everywhere:

     Yes, I know that suicide is a very sensitive topic and that others don't always understand their thoughts, but in this novel Hannah puts blame on others all over the place.  She puts a person through the torture of listening to her tapes.  Most of these people didn't mean to hurt her in any way and her character almost seems hypersensitive.  For example, Hannah says, "Every single event documented here may never have happened had you, Alex, not written my name on that list. It's that simple," in reference to Alex, one of her reasons for suicide.  This particular quote seems to send blame out of proportion and starts to not make sense.  Alex had no control over what others did later because of a small, minor action.  It sounds as if Hannah is trying to justify blame that shouldn't be there in the first place. 

3-  Uninvolved Parents:

     In the entire novel it seems that not one parent/adult even knows about the tapes.  Wouldn't some of the recipients tell their guardian?  Wouldn't the word get out about something like this?  It seems highly likely.  Clay's mother however, is present in the novel and does express some sort of concern towards him.  Peculiarly, she doesn't pry very much at all and ignores the signs that something strange is going on with her son.  At a point in the novel where Clay and his mother are at a diner, his mother has more interest in him ordering a malt besides the fact that her child seems emotionally unstable at the moment.  Most mothers in this situation would have great urgency towards this matter and want to know exactly what is going on. 

4-  Lack of Police Involvement:

     Alike adults, law enforcement seems to have no place in this book either.  There are countless situations where police could have entered the picture that would have made the novel much more comprehendible.  There was underage drinking, loud parties, peeping Tom's, rape, drunk driving, death, and bullying.  We don't hear of police getting involved once in this book.  Also, in the part of the book where Hannah discovered that she was being stalked, she decides not to call the police.  WHY???  People want justice for themselves after they have been treated unjustifiably and she had the choice to do that.  Ironically, she chose not to. 

5-  Not a typical Suicide Case:

     Hannah Baker's way of putting her suicide out to the public is not a very typical when it comes to these type of things.  I'm not saying that it makes her character seem dumb or just craving attention, I'm only saying that it is difficult for a reader to believe this could happen this way.  In the majority of suicide cases, people hide their emotions and want to be quiet about what's happening.  They feel ashamed and are embarrassed to get others involved.  In the novel however, Hannah takes an opposite approach putting everything out there, explaining exactly what happened, and why she felt the way she did. It's a difficult situation that is hard for a reader to wrap their head around. 


   Overall, Thirteen Reasons Why is an intense novel that does leave an impact on the audience.  Many events however, seem exaggerated or amplified because of a lack of involvement and atypical occurrences.  This could leave someone with the impression that this is just a crazy story, and possibly receive a not-worthwhile lesson.  The book was thrilling and emotional.  I just can't picture a thing like this happening in the real world.