Thirteen Reasons Why is a story told from beyond the grave. Hannah Baker killed herself, but before doing that she recorded a series of audio tapes explaining the reasons why she died and also who’s to blame for it. The book grips you and leaves you wanting to know the next story and how all of the events come together.

I think if Hannah’s meeting with Mr. Porter had gone differently then it wouldn’t have pushed her to her final decision. Hannah was so afraid to reach out for help the whole book, and when she finally did, Mr.Porter let her walk out of the room once she admitted that she was suicidal. After Hannah walked out of the room and Mr. Porter didn’t come after her to help she decided that nobody cared and that life was truly pointless. If Mr. Porter would have chased after her or not let her leave the room she might have changed her mind and realized that people did care about her and she didn’t need to take her life.

I don’t think Hannah was selfish when she made these tapes because she had a message to get out that couldn’t be delivered in her life. It would have been selfish of her to hurt these people before she died to “bring them down with me,” but she was simply leaving an explanation as to how she got to this point. Also, since Hannah explained what actions each individual person did to hurt her, she can hope that after hearing the tapes, the individuals will change their behaviors for the better or be more aware that the actions they display can hurt others. I think some of them will take away the lessons and become more caring individuals. Mr. Porter, in my opinion, will take away a lesson stronger than the others because he was her last hope and he knows that. Also, at the beginning of the book they talked about him being disturbed and very distraught, so he already knows he messed up before he even gets the tapes. I don’t think any of the guys will change how they act or treat women though.

I think Hannah made an impact on everyone’s life regardless if they were negative or positive, but  I don’t think that she needed to die to get her point across. I didn’t like the ending of the book because it ends with Clay reaching out to this girl Syke that he had a crush on in like 8th grade and saw on the bus last night. The reason I have an issue with this is because thoughtout the whole book Clay talked about how he was  practically in love with Hannah and now that the tapes are over he’s going to change his whole demeanor and talk to this other girl? It doesn’t seem right to me to totally abandon the thought of Hannah so quickly, especially after hearing what was on the tapes just last night.

“Like driving along a bumpy road and losing control of the steering wheel, tossing you, tossing you, just a tad off the road. The wheels kick up some dirt, but you’re able to pull it back. Yet no matter how tightly you grip the wheel, no matter how hard you try to drive straight, something keeps jerking you to the side. You have so little control over anything anymore.” I think this quote is a metaphor for Hannah’s life. As she’s being faced with the unfortunate events that shake her off the road, she gets back on track to only have something knock her back off.