A review of this — 1 year ago
This book is a rather good concept, but it is executed quite poorly. This book has forever turned me away from any of Jay Asher’s future works. The main character is whiny, and she overreacts about everything that has happened to her. (example: Voted me best ass in the freshman class? Now I’m going to put you on the list of people who are responsible for my suicide.) She blames thirteen other people for her suicide, when there is only one person who actually swallowed the pills – herself. Even through her death, she seeks attention, making tapes blaming the people who “caused her death.”
Maybe I’m sensitive because I’m a suicide survivor. (I’ve gotten past my depression and am now a healthy, happy person.) I knew I was the only one responsible for any action I took. I never once blamed other people for anything I did to myself. Hannah, the main character from this story, needs to take some responsibility.
Comments
Rachel
Baltimore
I didn’t feel that she was actually blaming the person, rather explaining the events (and the people involved) that lead up to her suicide.
lunaintheshade
Yeah, I can see where you’re coming from, but I still don’t see the point in making the tapes. Where’s the gain? I can see that maybe there’s gain in opening people’s minds to what their actions can do. But on the flip side, do those thirteen people really need to know? Should they really have to live out the rest of their lives like that? I mean, sure they did things that hurt her, but nothing was done to Hannah that was too big she couldn’t get help for.
It just gets me thinking, is all.
Rachel
Baltimore
I think she was just a teenager who couldn’t see how what SHE did would effect other people, just as the people who did things to her didn’t notice how it effected her. Typical teenaged blindness.
yeldemenel
Houston
I agree with the person above, and I’d also like to point out that, unlike you, she actually went through with the suicide. If she had been able to take responsibility, she would have seen that she was overreacting and probably would never have killed herself.
lunaintheshade
I don’t want to get into an argument, but I do want to explain.
A suicide survivor would be like if Hannah ended up passing out before she took enough pills to kill herself or if someone found her in time to pump her stomach. Something like that where the person took action to kill himself/herself but something goes “wrong” and doesn’t “work out” with the suicide. (I’m putting those two things in quotes, because, obviously, it’s a good thing when that happens.)
But anyway, I truly believe that everyone can have their own opinion. I just wanted to explain because I felt the slightest bit attacked in that last comment.