Hannah is a teenager who recently committed suicide. When Clay receives a box of audiotapes in the mail, he realizes that they are from Hannah describing the 13 Reasons Why she committed suicide. Clay, who knew Hannah from school and work, has no idea why he would be included on the tapes as one of the reasons. Clay was interested in Hannah and wanted to get to know her but overall there was no true relationship between them. Then Clay proceeds to spend all day and night listening to the tapes as he wants to know what happened.

I think this book is a good read for a lot of teenagers and their parents. It is very hard to see the signs of mental illness and thoughts of suicide if that person is trying to mask it from others. In this book, I felt that Hannah had a lot of reasons to be upset about her life. When you are truly depressed, it is very hard to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that suicide is not the answer. As I have suffered major depression all my life (thankfully under control with medication), I can completely understand being in pain and just wishing life would end.

However, Hannah did have opportunities to change her life that she CHOSE not to take and even sometimes intentionally made things worse for herself. Unfortunately, not everyone is a mind reader or can observe external signs if the person does not let them into their life. If Hannah had reached out for help sooner or reported certain events to authorities, things may have been different.