I really wanted to love this story, but I ended up simply appreciating it a great deal. I really loved the originality of the premise of this book. A voice from beyond the grave pulling people's strings is a great way to structure a plot, and making that voice belong to a teenage girl who recently committed suicide made it poignant and heartbreaking. 
 It also made me REALLY freaking angry. For a few different reasons. 
 First of all, people failed Hannah, no doubt about it. She deserved better, much better. I certainly can see how some of the people on her list ought to shoulder some of the guilt for her plight at school. Hannah was ignored and used by mean girls, made a public object of sexual harassment (that boiled my blood), and apparently, was the victim of false rumors that are incredibly damaging to an adolescent girl. Hell, in one case especially, the kid was the lowest of the low, and he ought to have been properly and publicly beaten for the heinous and illegal things he did. I can see why Hannah was so angry about why few really reached out to her. That last one. . . man, I couldn't believe it! Why, why, why did he not go straight to the principal or her parents? 
 However, I have to be honest - I found the fact that Hannah, through all her pain and desperation to end it all, found the time to plan and execute a macabre tour of the way people let her down and hurt her to be really, really sickening. I had a lot of anger towards Hannah right from the start: the teasing comments to the tapes' recipients, the carefully planned map, the orderly and methodical way of going through her list of people and telling their parts in her story? Such things take time and planning. To me, it made Hannah's death feel more like revenge rather than a heartbreaking out from her pain. In the beginning, she initially seemd to take pleasure in the shock and horror she knew she was giving the tapes' recipients. This set the tone before I heard the 'whys', and for me, overshadowed the actual pain people put her through and made her death feel like a well-constructed component in a plan to have the last, sick laugh. It made me so angry! 
 I am not trying to make light of the way Hannah was used and treated by others. It's heartbreaking for anyone to feel like they are on the outside, but it's especially hard to go through that in high school. I honestly did feel for Hannah, and I actually cried while reading the book (and even while writing this review). I understand how the little things really can add up to the snowball effect. I usually have a great amount of heartfelt emotion for people who go through depression (see my review on Revolution), but I found it hard to do with Hannah since she seemed hell bent on making people feel guilty for her choice to end her life. Did everyone on that tape deserve blame for what she did? Nope, not all of them, and you'll never convince me otherwise. Most of them should have to answer to someone for the things they did, and sometimes, that 'someone' definitely was Hannah. But in some of the cases, that person was not Hannah. However, because she decided to point the finger. . . some of them now have a ghost unfairly following them for the rest of their lives. 
 In terms of the writing, it's a well-written book by a first-time novelist. I had a few instances of questioning the characters' decisions and how the plot played out. However, each voice is strong and distinct. I really love that we heard personally from Hannah. In all fairness, she really called out people on some things she had a perfect right to be upset about (I just wish she had been that articulate with them while she was still living). There were a few times I wished she could have gone on uninterrupted by Clay's thoughts and reactions, but generally, his reactions gave a very real feeling of how the living deal with suicide, and the Hannah/Clay interaction provided genuine emotion, a solid substitution for dialogue and good pacing. Clay's quick turnaround surprised me at the end, but I loved his character My sole complaint with Clay is that it felt like he got an 'easy out' with Hannah's tapes. I think he could have been put to better use to get the point across if he had failed Hannah in some way, some actual way, rather than being the right guy who came along too late. That part still makes me so angry - there was proof right in front of her that she had possibilities in her life, and the realization of it was so powerful that it made her cry. Yet, she still decided to end it. 
 Maybe that's the true point of this book. I've seen so many reviews praising it for its portrayal of suicidal teens and how we have to reach out to them, how it's a cautionary tale that what we do has a very real affect on others. That's a point that no one can argue with. Everyone belongs to a community, and in communities, we are responsible for the well-being of others, and people do deserve to be treated with kindness. However, in the end, even Hannah knew that there could be second chances, and she decided not to take them. Her death didn't make sense. It didn't serve any purpose, it did no good, and from the sound of the tapes, she didn't go looking for peace; she went angry and wanted others to know about it. So, I think the other message here is when things like this happen, you have to take what lessons you can from them and resolve to not let another person go down that lonely path to nowhere, if you can. 
 In the end, I recommend this book. It's on an important subject, it's well-written and really makes you think about how your little actions that you think are insignificant or a good laugh can really affect and hurt others. Maybe my reaction is simply too personal. I just have a lot of anger towards Hannah after reading this (and other characters, as well). Maybe I'm supposed to. I don't mean to for my review to seem like I blame her for wanting a way out of her pain - I don't. I have a great amount of compassion for her, and my heart aches for that girl inside who just wanted not to be judged, to receive kindness, and to have a good friend or two. It's the way she treated her own death like it was the last laugh on others that had me so angry. I feel so badly for people contemplating suicide, but please, believe me - you are loved, you are wanted here on this earth, and your death would bring far more pain than peace.