Book Review: Thirteen Reasons Why

I have seen some of my writerly friends complaining about not having a book that grabs them lately. It is a perennial problem that happens with every reader. You go through ups and downs of reading quality.

"Thirteen Reasons Why," by Jay Asher cured that ill for me for about a week. This book grabbed me and demanded all of my free time.

The book starts out with good guy Clay receiving a set of tapes from post-suicidal classmate Hannah Baker. It seems Hannah has arranged a list of people who get these tapes, and they are instructed to then pass them along to the next person. The details of this arrangement are sketchy and sometimes test the limits of what kids would actually do, but the compelling desire to understand why Hannah chose to take her life, and how this all snowballed together overrides.

Details are handed out like treats, with associations coming together and the interconnection of people and events mimicking the "snowball" event Hannah speaks of in her narrative. Although we all know how it ends for Hannah, Asher manages a satisfactorily hopeful leave to this novel.

Spring!

Nothing makes a Wisconsinite happier than 

sunshine, blue skies, and melting snowbanks 

at the end of another long, dark winter.

Hello Spring. 

It's about time you got here.