There are 13 reason why I could not put down the book “13 Reasons Why” by Jay Asher. It took me three days in Graphics class to get to the middle and the fourth time I picked up the book I made sure to be in a place where no one would be there to bother me, because I was determined to finish it right then and there. And guess what? A cup of tea and an hour and a half later I was finished.

The book is about a girl, Hannah Baker, who ends her life after coming to a new school and having her reputation made into someone she is not. Clay Jensen is the boy who always wanted to help her but never did. Clay is on her list of 13 reasons why, he is the one who takes you on the journey of her reasons.

1.  I fell in deep love with this book: It grabbed me by the brain and put me in a read-me trance. I honestly thought about the book every minute of the day I wasn’t able to read it.
2.  This is the author’s first book and he rocked it. Hopefully it doesn’t go under as a one-hit-wonder, but I have faith in him.
3. You get two sides to the story of a girl who ends her life over the snowball effect and the boy who never took his chance to save her. You take a walk in the shoes of a challenged, crumbling teen while getting the reaction of those already mourning her death.
4. You feel for the characters, you’re not just reading the book – you’re in the book. You want to cry when they cry, you want to scream when they’re doing something you wish you could change. You want to jump in and change the story.
5. You look at your life in a totally different perspective. How did you affect the person who sits across from you in your third hour? What about in 9th grade at that dance? How did you change someone else’s life and was it for the good or for the worse? Asher does an amazing job at making you feel.
6. The book is raw. Asher leaves nothing out. If it starts to make you uncomfortable, good. You’ll understand the main character’s life better.
7.  Asher brings you back to old-fashioned tapes. Before Hannah Baker ended her life, she used cassette tapes to record herself telling the 13 people what they did to make her want to take her life. She then sent the tapes in a box with no return address, just a message and directions to pass the tapes onto the next person on the list once they’d finished.
8. Asher is a guy, which is not a big deal but he pin-points girls’ thoughts like he is one.
9.  It’s a romance, mystery and awareness novel all wrapped up into one package. Asher tied things together well when he came up with Hannah Baker’s story and managed to intertwine it into Clay’s without getting confusing.
10.  I had always heard it was a good book from others, but I tend to stay away from what every one else thinks is good, so I never bought it. But when a friend said I could borrow it, I couldn’t resist. As you can probably guess, if you’ve been reading this close enough, it was as good as everyone said.
11.  You know when you get in that reading zone – okay some of you may have never picked up a book if it didn’t have to do with school, but when you get in that zone where you feel like you are one of the characters or watching the movie happen in your head, that’s what happened to me.
12.  I think it made me happier to be alive because, since I’ve finished the book, I have just been in a better mood, more appreciative of my life and what I have –  which is never a bad thing.
13.  Asher thought of the number 13 for the book because of Hannah’s last name being Baker, it would be like a baker’s dozen – which is what the book originally was going to be titled. I think 13 makes it a little more unforgettable too – like the unlucky number 13.

In this case, 13 is a lucky number because it’s the best book I’ve read all year.