Review-Thirteen Reasons Why

Asher's debut novel is an amazing show of literary genius and I don't think I've ever been as awestruck by a first novel as I was by this one.  It was shocking and unforgettable and if you haven't read it I highly recommend you go pick it up now.  There are no words to explain how amazing this novel is, but if I had to choose some they would be "beautiful", "lyrical", and "haunting" and with this novel Jay really made a splash.  The feature on the back of the dust jacket was an added bonus, being able to see the map that Hannah referred to all throughout the book was really great and I found myself looking at it right along with the main character as I read the words that were being spoken through the tapes on the pages.  When I finished this book I found myself in awe of the writing and astounded by the story that Asher had woven in such a short novel.  Fans of Ellen Hopkins and the novel Cut will love this book and eat it up.  I'm sure that it has been ban in a few schools around the country but I think it's really important that every child (or even adult) read this book at one point in their life because the impact it has is huge.  Even the reluctant reader will find themselves glued to the pages as the story unfolds and you read on to see the reason a teenage girl decided to end her own life.  The whole idea of this book, that just one person could have changed the outcome of a situation and saved her life, really hits you hard and makes you think about all of those times you've insulted someone, and all the poor things that you've done to others will come back into your mind.  This novel has a great air of mystery about it as well and I think that's the other thing that fascinated me, you needed to know what happened to Hannah and why she took her own life.  The question is, if you were the reason someone killed themselves would you have the courage to find out why, and what would you do to change yourself once you knew why?

5/5 Dust spirits

*Note, this review has been redone from the original because it was short and I didn't feel it did the book justice.  Some of my older reviews will be redone but I'll let you know the ones I do change.