Well, hmmm. I liked that this intense read took place in real time -- narrator Clay has just received a box of cassette tapes recorded by his high-school classmate Hannah, and he listens to them in the course of one night. The thing is, Hannah has already committed suicide, and she plans for the tapes to go to every person who had something to do with her death, detailing the "13 reasons why." Clay is a "good guy" who actually had a big crush on Hannah, and is appalled and guilt-ridden that he is a recipient of the tapes. 
 The tape-by-tape unraveling of the story creates a lot of suspense and makes the book hard to put down. Hannah says there are other parts to her story not detailed on the tapes, and I did wish to know more about her family life, so that I could understand why it seemed to do nothing to stop her downward spiral. Hannah's tapes seem to say that no one reached out to help her or paid due attention to her "signs," but narrator Clay is there to tell us that there were those who tried (like himself), and Hannah pushed them away. I felt like I wanted a cleaner resolution to this conflict, but I suppose there is some truth to it: you never know at what point "small" injustices hurt, nor when you've waited too long to reach out to someone. Some pretty heavy events happen by the final tapes, yet Hannah had already decided to kill herself before they happened. Also, I'm curious what the reader is supposed to have expected from Mr. Porter. Hannah implicates him heavily for not being her last-ditch rescue, yet I didn't find his actions as appalling as Clay did. Am I just heartless? 
 At any rate, this is a powerful book ripe for discussion, and it does an excellent job illustrating the profound effects of supposedly small actions, especially those that happen in high school to someone who is already fragile. Hannah's story shows that there is such a thing as death by a thousand cuts. Whose fault is it?