It was not that long ago that Hannah Baker committed suicide. Her legacy i sin the form of 7 audiocassettes that she has created. Each of 13 sides is dedicated to someone who had a major effect on her life (and death), and in the process of having them listen to her take, she reveals why she purposefully overdosed bacause she felt that she could no longer live.

At one point, she tells one of them: You don't know what went on in the rest of my life. At home. Even at school. You don't know what goes on in anyone;s life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person's life, you're not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can't be that precise and selctive. When you mess with one part of a person's life, you're messing with their entire life.

Everything ... effects everything.

Throughout the book, we join Clay Jensen as he listens through the set, which he received in the mail. Hannah held a special place in Clay's heart. He had always had a crush on her, but had been afraid to speak up about it to her.

Asher does a wonderful job of capturing the reality of teenage life and what kids unwittingly do to each other with comments, actions, and behavior as they do what they can to achieve the best possible setting on the social ladder.

My biggest problem is that I had a real problem connecting with the characters, in all honesty. In fact, It took me about half the book to figure out that Clay was the only person listening to the tapes in the narration rather than each of the intended 13 listeners, which was confusing because it was wrong.

Even once I sorted that out, I still could not sort out why Hannah committed suicide in the end ... even after listening to her whole story. She is strong enough to critique all these people, identifying their faults and placing responsibility in them rather than herself. She presents her conclusions in an elaborate process with the tapes and an accompanying marked map, forcing them to trace the geographic footsteps of the events that led her to decide to kill herself. It just seems a little off since it doesn't fit the characteristics of a suicidal individual ... at least to me.

I seem to be an exception, though. The book has gotten great reviews. I ended up reading it because of an award committee I am on (and chair), and the other readers to date have really enjoyed it. I think they were able to connect better than me. part of the problem is that the thoughts and conversations of Clay interweave with the playing tape in Hannah's own words, which was a purposeful choice of Asher, based on quotes defining where he came up with the idea for the book.