Review by August Kemp
By Jay Asher
Genre: Young Adult
Rating: N-Contingent (See Personal Review)
Content: Suicide, Mild Violence, Teen Drinking, Some sexual references with one descriptive scene of molestation/rape.
Summary: (From goodreads)
Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.
On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.
Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.
Personal Review:
Wow, Thirteen Reasons Why is one of the most thought provoking books I’ve ever read. That being said I would almost never recommend this book to anyone especially not to teenaged kids. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that the Issue of suicide is important for our children to be aware of and to know about, but here is the thing, teenager’s brains don’t process things the same way that human being’s brains do. (Some argue that teenagers are human beings but anybody who has ever been a teenager knows—at least deep down—that they are definitely different from you and me).
I said that I would not recommend this book to anyone. The reason for this is that nationally about 1 in 10 American adults report having depression (according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and that is not counting the hormone-juiced, emotionally-handicapped teens of the nation. When individuals are suffering from severe depression those thoughts are not only amplified but they are accented by a lack of ability to think rationally. I don’t think it is a stretch of the imagination for me to worry about a depressed or irrational person interpreting the meaning of this book to be “If I kill myself in an AWESOME way then they will actually care about me!” this is not what the book is about but teenagers (non-humans) and severely depressed individuals could see it that way.
I consider myself to be a naturally happy person and I enjoyed reading this book, and if I found someone who has read it I would love to discuss it with them but it was a bit depressing for me. As far as my recommending it, it’s almost always going to be a no-go.
If your child is assigned to read this book in school, then I would recommend that you take the time to read it. While reading it you should have frequent and open discussions with your child about the book and the issues that it raises. If your child is never assigned this book to read I might suggest that you and your child discuss the topic of suicide and take a class or do online research into prevention and recognizing signs of suicidal thoughts.
-August Kemp
P.S.
Here are just a few stats on Suicide in the U.S. as reported on The National Institute of Mental Health website (www.nimh.nih.gov).
Deaths by suicide (in 2007)
· Children ages 10 to 14 — 0.9 per 100,000
· Adolescents ages 15 to 19 — 6.9 per 100,000
· Young adults ages 20 to 24 — 12.7 per 100,000
· people ages 65 and older— 14.3 per 100,000. (This figure is higher than the national average of 11.3 suicides per 100,000 people in the general population.)
No comments:
Post a Comment