Thirteen Reasons Why
14 Jul 2009 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: depression, friendship, Keepin' It Real, suicide
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Published by RazorBill, New York: 2007
288 pgs
Recommended reading age: 14 and up (for language and sexual content)
VOYA rating: 4P, 4Q
This is a page turner. Once you start this book, you are hooked and have to keep reading until you find out exactly how it all ends. It is a mystery but it is also a love story and a story about friendship. It has suspense. It has sex, parties, alcohol and other risky teen behavior that might be controversial for parents but still very appealing subject matter for a teen reader.
Hannah has committed suicide, which you find out almost immediately. Rather than leave a long suicide note she has instead chosen to record her reasoning behind her suicide on cassettes that she is having passed around after her death. She plans things rather intricately which, is one of the unbelievable things I had to take with a grain of salt about this novel. You follow the story through first person narrative through the voice of the protagonist Clay.
Clay use to work with Hannah at the movie theatre and has had a major crush on her for a very long time. Clay had a real crush on Hannah based not just on her looks (although they had a bit to do with it) but on her personality as well. He is shocked to find out he is one of the 13 individuals who have been given a tape. He can’t figure out what he could have possibly done to Hannah when all he ever wanted to be was a good friend, and maybe her boyfriend.
The story unfolds and the reader is compelled to keep reading to see what each person has done to Hannah. Clay finds out that all of these tiny little events from long ago have left ripples and caused evil rumors to spread about Hannah and her reputation. One thing just builds on another as Clay learns how all of these misconceptions had severely messed with Hannah’s head. It is like a bad car crash that you can’t help but looking at. You are sad that she has committed suicide, but you want to see all the gory details and be able to judge Hannah for yourself as the reader.
I don’t know how believable it would be for someone who is suicidal to plan things so well down to the last detail. According to Hannah this type of planning is apparently recognizable and typical of a depressed and suicidal person so maybe this is just from my lack of knowledge on the subject. Also, Hannah manages to sound so upbeat and happy through her tapes. She speaks so intelligently. She is witty, cunning and funny which makes her suicide all the more heartbreaking.
You eventually find out that Clay actually didn’t do anything to cause Hannah to commit suicide. He was actually one of the good people in her life which is a type of relief to Clay but also still heartbreaking. Clay is still left with the burden of knowing all the terrible things that happened to Hannah and all the lies that were told about her. He left wondering if there was something more he could have done to stop her had he only known. It is as if he is being punished even though he isn’t the one who deserves it. It speaks to the fact that Hannah just didn’t want to be alone in her sorrow. I think she just needed someone, other than the people who had shamed her, to know her real story. Clay is changed by the tapes too. He decides to start talking to an ex-girlfriend who seems to be heading down the same depression path that Hannah had taken.
I think this is an interesting story but was at times bothered by Hannah’s choices. Maybe it is the cynic in me, but I wonder what teens would think of Hannah’s suicide. Would teens argue that she had committed suicide over inconsequential events that many teens deal with? Would they judge her actions harshly or would they be sympathetic. I think this would make an EXCELLENT book discussion for a teen book club, even though the subject matter is a little dicey.
The photo of a girl on a swing used as the cover is a little heartbreaking because she seems so innocent and childlike yet you know after reading the book that she was really in a dark and strange place at the time. Teens might relate to the cover because she is a real teen dressed trendy and cute who is hiding behind the cassette tapes. I though the use of “Th1rteen R3asons” in the cover’s title was clever because it reminds the reader to read between the lines to find out the truth about the tapes and why Hannah is dead.
Cut
03 Jul 2009 Leave a Comment
in Uncategorized Tags: cutting, Keepin' It Real, realistic fiction, self-mutilation
Cut by Patricia McCormick
Published by PUSH, New York, NY 2000.
160 pages
Recommended reading age: 13 and up
VOYA Rating: 4P 4Q
Cut is a short and rather quick fiction read for teens that depicts a young teen battling her depression and frustrations through self-mutilation. The story follows 15-year old Callie as she silences her demons by finding her voice and opening up about her depression to her family and counselors.
Callie is a cutter and she cuts because of her depression. A lot of Callie’s stress and worry stems from the fact that there is a lot of emotional turmoil going on in her family life. Callie was a runner who enjoyed being a part of the cross-country team until her family life starts to take over. You see Callie has a younger brother whom she loves but he is very sick with allergy related sickness that manifests itself into asthma-like symptoms. His sickness causes his parents to be extremely over-protective of him and sometimes Callie goes unnoticed. The story opens with Callie running away from a meet that she is failing at miserably. Rather than being able to escape, and deal with her stress through running, she feels trapped. Missing the high from her usual source of release, Callie returns home for the first time and sees a knife in the kitchen. Feeling pent up and frustrated the author describes in detail the thoughts that are going through Callie’s head as she cuts for the first time. It is a very poignant and introspective look into Callie’s head and the reader can feel extremely close to her during this intimate moment. It really grabs you into gaining a better understanding as to what goes through a person’s head when they cut.
Eventually Callie winds up in Sea Pines (which all the “guests” refer to as “Sick Minds”) which is a recovery facility for other teens dealing with various ailments including substance abuse addictions and eating disorders. Callie refuses to speak to any body in her group and individual therapy sessions. Slowly things start to happen to Callie. She starts to feel something for her fellow “guests” at Sick Minds. She starts to care about them. She starts to speak and open up about her brother and reveals that she has always blamed herself for an incident that involved her brother being rushed to the hospital. Since her brother’s illness has strained their parents’ marriage Callie feels doubly responsible. Eventually, with her counselor and her friends at her recovery facility, she is able to start talking about her problems and begins the healing process.
I felt this was very similar to “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson and uses the very literal metaphor of speech (or lack of) to represent to her lost voice and isolation. The main character spends the whole life of the story in Sick Minds but uses flashbacks to illustrate what has happened prior to her entrance there. It deals with a very serious subject that many teens with deal. Even if a teen can’t relate to Callie’s self-mutilation they can relate to her other problems because they are all realistic and representative of family issues that teens face every day. The dialog between the other characters in the story and how slowly Callie opened up more and more. As a reader, you are really rooting for her by the end of the book. You are left, hopeful, that she is on the road to recovery. It offers an outlet for those teens who are cutters to find a representation of their pain while guiding them with an overall positive message to seek help. On the other hand for teens unfamiliar with the affliction of self-mutilation this story offers a window into that mindset and brings a very serious and secretive issue to the forefront.
