The book starts off with one of the main character, Clay Jensen, dropping off a package at the post office for someone named Jenny, but he didn't but the return address and also seemed very out of it. The other main character in the book is a girl names Hannah Baker who ended up killing herself a few weeks before Clay sent out his package. A few days before Hannah passed away someone had put a map inside his school locker with different places pointed out on it but he thought nothing of it an crammed it inside his bag. Inside the package is seven cassette tapes with 13 stories.
Clay isn't the first to receive the tapes because someone had to send them to him. Clay and Hannah went to school together and worked in a movie theater together, but didn't talk too much because he got really shy around her (she was popular and outgoing and he kept to himself). He wasn't sure where he fit into this whole situation. When the tapes are playing, each side will start off with Hannah giving out hints of who the person is, what they did to be in her tape, and then she finally will tell you who it is. The first tape, side A, is Hannah announcing it is indeed her talking on the tapes, and that the tapes all tell the story of her life and why she ended her life. She tells them that if you've been sent the tapes, that you play a role in her life, a role in her ending her life, good or bad. The two rules she announces are that 1. you have to listen and 2. you have to pass the tapes onto the next person when you're done listening.
The first tape is for Justin Foley. She lets the listener know which location on the map relates to this story. Clay was listening as he arrived at her old house. Hannah moved into the state and he was Hannah's first kiss at a park one night, but he started rumors that they did more than kiss. His role in the tapes are that he played a big role in what people thought of her, giving her a bad reputation, because as a new girl people are going to believe the rumors over whats true. The second person is a guy named Alex Standall. Hannah had a friend named Jessica, which they were no longer friends, and Alex made a list, of who had the best and who had the worst, and he but her as best butt, and Jessica as worst because he was mad at Jessica too and knew that putting her ex-best friend would hurt more than a random person. Hannah knew that after that list there was no chance of rekindling the friendship they once had.
The second tape, side A, had a third person on it, but it again involved Alex and Jessica, because they were all new to school that year they got close to each other. Jessica and Hannah both thought Alex was cute, and Jessica accused Hannah of stealing Alex from her because she was voted best and she wasn't, Hannah tried to tell her she wanted nothing to do with Alex but Jessica didn't want to believe her, which lead to her scratching and slapping Hannah's face.
”Because it may seem like a small role now, but it matters. In the end, everything matters.”(Page 13)
I liked this quote because it's true, no matter how small, it could change someone's day, for better or worse. It just shows that people should be more careful with the hurtful things people say.
I think that if I were to be in the book and have the tapes sent to me, I would be really freaked out and I would probably have to talk to a friend about it, even if they weren't one of the people in the tapes. What would you do? I think it's kind of weird that she decided to send the tapes out and have this all planned out, almost like she wanted to freak out everyone who listened to the tapes. I feel like its really sad that she was felt so uncomfortable that she had to do all of this to get people to believe and hear her side of the stories, the rumors. I think after reading how no one believed her over the rumors it's going to make me not judge someone by a rumor that could be completely fake. What would you do if you received the tapes? Would you pass them on to the next person and forget about it a few weeks later, or do you think it would bother you for a long time with questions that will never get answers?
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