13 Reasons Why Jay Asher

Jay Asher bestselling is the author of 13 Reasons Why. Throughout his life, Asher worked in a shoe store, multiple libraries, and bookstores. All of these jobs have helped Asher to write his stories. While still in high school, he wrote two children’s books and he continues to write picture books for children and middle school humor novels. Asher attended California Polytechnic State University which he left his senior year to start his career as a serious writer. To date, Asher has published two novels. 13 Reasons Why and The Future of Us. 13 Reasons Why is a 2007 New York Times bestselling young adult fiction novel and The Future of Us was co written by Carolyn Mackler in 2011.

In Asher’s 13 Reasons Why, Clay Jenson finds a box meant for him filled with cassette tapes which were recorded by Hannah Baker. Hannah was Clay’s classmate who had had a crush on, and who had committed suicide two weeks prior. In a series of seven recorded audio tapes, which she mails to a classmate with instructions to pass from one student on her list to another so they can each hear the reasons why she decided to end her life. Hannah says that there are 13 reasons why she decided to kill herself, and Clay is one of the reasons. But he’ll have to listen to each of the tapes to understand why he may have caused Hannah to kill herself. Asher wrote this story because it was inspired by events that happened at his high school. Through these two narratives of Clay and Hannah in 13 reasons Why Asher was able to make a deep impact on his readers. He was able to write a story that he hopes will leave a lasting impact on anyone who reads it.

13 Reasons Why is full of emotion and it hits home to any reader who may know someone who decided to end their life. I think that in the story, Hannah hopes that her tapes would have the ability to change even one of her peers and the actions that they take to cause havoc in other people’s lives. It may have given her something to hold on to in her final moments. This story shows that your actions, whether they are spreading rumors, telling lies, or bullying can dramatically affect another person’s life. Her story is a very real portrayal of suicide and the feelings that come with it, for the one who took their life, and the people that it may affect.