13 Reasons Why

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I have to say first that I have never watched the Netflix series of this novel, and that was done so very intentionally. It is not easy for me to so readily emerge myself into content this deep and emotional if I can help it. Apart from my bias of not particularly enjoying this topic of reading I thought that the novel was written very well. The author was clever in her style and craft and I think it made it extremely effective. One way she did that, that stood out to me was her differentiation between Hannah and Clay's voice. Using italics to specify Hannah's voice was a smart move because the fact that Hannah has commentary within her own stories, it would be very confusing to follow. Besides, in the Spanish language, it uses italics to specify quotations all the time, not quotation marks. 
As far as the flow of the story is concerned, I felt Asher knew what she was doing. The story flowed and never seemed like it was too much for me to take. Having Clay's thoughts and story taking place throughout Hannah's recorded voice, made for some nice breaks. One example I particularly liked and I'm not even sure why was when he was at the coffee house. He's listening to the tape while ordering a drink when an old classmate of his who he doesn't remember suddenly pops up. It wasn't all that significant to the story at all, but I found it so relatable and amusing that it made me chuckle. I felt like this was a clever thing for the author to do to try and cushion the story that Hannah was telling all while this going on.
I personally would not teach this book in my high school class room. Although it's a good read and very informative to a lot of kids, I just do not see how it necessary or beneficial for the majority. I feel like with the increase in depression rates among teens it's not the best idea to hand them a book that says, "hey, you're depressed and people hurt your feelings. Want a way to get back at them? You should kill yourself and haunt them with tapes that blame them for you doing it. That'll show'em to give you attention." I realize that some kids are more mature than others, but this is exactly why I would not teach this, for the few who are not mature yet and cannot/ should not be asked to take on such serious and complex issues as this. 

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