You're probably thinking: oh, great, another article about Thirteen Reasons Why. Hear me out, though. I've never read the book, nor have I seen the series, and I'm still on the fence about doing so in the nearby future, so I'm not here to yell at you for not bingeing the series on Netflix or not reading the book. In fact, if you are here, you're probably as tired as I am of being bombarded with posts about Thirteen Reasons Why every time you set foot on social media. So let's put this to rest. Here's why I've never read this book.
1. General disinterest
Flashback to somewhere around my later middle school years. I'm maybe thirteen or fourteen. I've come across this book in the young adult section at the library. Oh, the title looks interesting. It's Thirteen Reasons Why. I pick it up, check out the inside jacket flap, and...nope. Not interested. For me, the inside jacket flap is the selling point (or the back cover if it's a paperback). If I'm not pulled in by the jacket flap or the back cover, well, there's a pretty strong possibility that I'm not going to read your book. Thirteen Reasons Why's jacket flap just didn't do it for me. I picked it up on other occasions I happened to see it in the library, thinking maybe my opinion had changed and maybe I wanted to read it, but still - no. I've just never been interested in reading it.
2. Overrated and overhyped
Personally, I've never been one to read a book just because it was popular. It's part of the reason I've never read The Hunger Games or the Divergent series. There's maybe one instance of me having done that, and it was probably when the Twilight series came out. But even then I really wasn't reading them because they were popular, I was reading them because my sister was reading them and I wanted to read them before I saw the movies. Thirteen Reasons Why is another one of those books. I wasn't that inclined to read it before the new Netflix series came out, and I'm even less inclined to read it now that the series has been released. I'd say, "oh, I'll read it once the excitement dies down," but the reality of me actually following through on that is slim to none. That's the exact same thing I said about The Hunger Games books and I still haven't read them. Don't read it because it's popular; read it because you're genuinely interested.
3. Jay Asher
I'm probably going to get a bit of flak over this one, but seriously: some authors are just not good or really worth reading, and that's how I feel about Jay Asher. I just don't think he's a very good writer in general. I have actually read his other two books, and I wasn't especially enamored of them either. The first of his other books that I read was a collaborative effort between him and Carolyn Mackler titled The Future of Us, which is set in the 90's and it's about this guy and this girl who live next door to each other. The guy gets sent over to the girl's house with this AOL disk, and somehow, in the 90's, they're able to access Facebook and see their futures. Long story short, the story itself, as well as the ending, left something to be desired. Conceptually, it was a really cool idea for a story, but they both opened up too many subplots and didn't do anything with them, not to mention the plotholes in the existing story. The second one of Jay Asher's books that I read was called What Light, which is about this girl whose family runs a Christmas tree farm and they move to this small town every year for the Christmas holidays. She meets this guy with a dark, troubled past, and you can pretty much guess the rest of the book from there. This one was just chock-full of cheesy YA romance schmaltziness, and again, left something to be desired. I honestly felt like I could have written this one myself because it read like a Hallmark movie or any other cutesy mindless summer read. So no, based on my experiences with Jay Asher's other books, I don't have any desire to read Thirteen Reasons Why.
4. Unrealistic
As a writer, I think I could probably portray teen suicide more accurately and I've never been affected by teen suicide or known anyone who's struggled with suicidal thoughts. Making someone listen to thirteen tapes about all the people who screwed you over when you were alive honestly just seems kind of petty and overdramatic. You kind of made your point by committing suicide, did you not? Now you're just beating a dead horse. The people that screwed you over know what they did wrong, because obviously you, the person they did those things to, committed suicide. You don't need to remind them because again, that's just petty. That's what they have to live with. And no one does that. No one bothers to make thirteen tapes before they decide to commit suicide. Most people just write a letter or make a video or they do nothing at all. Or you could just not commit suicide and stick it to them by staying alive and telling your story. I'd rather read a more accurate representation of teen suicide.
