Th1rteen R3easons Why

Th1rteen R3asons Why

By Jay Asher

This book changed me forever. I will never ever forget it. I've been in Hannah's shoes before. I think we all have had Hannah moments... but have we also been one of the thirteen? This book is eerie, beautiful and absolutely, breathtakingly, devastating. I feel the world would be a better place if everyone read this. Read this. I could not put this book down. This was my second time reading it. It reveals what is behind the masks we all wear and how everything we do and say (or don't do and say) effects everything... This book touched my heart, and its fingerprints will remain etched there forever.

SUMMARY: When high school student Clay Jensen receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.

You can't stop the future,

You can't rewind the past.

The only way to learn the secret

...is to press play.

Clay Jensen doesn't want anything to do with the tapes Hannah Baker made. Hannah is dead. Her secrets should be buried with her.

Then Hannah's voice tells Clay that his name is on her tapes--and that he is, in some way, responsible for her death.

All through the night, Clay keeps listening. He follows Hannah's recorded words throughout his small town...

...and what he discovers changes his life forever.

MY FAVORITE QUOTES FROM THIS BOOK:
"Hello, boys and girls. Hannah Baker here. Live and in stereo. No return engagements. No encore. And this time, absolutely no requests. I hope you're ready; because I'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to these tapes, you're one of the reasons why."

-Hannah Baker

"The rules are pretty simple. There are only two. Rule number one: You listen. Number two: You pass it on. Hopefully neither one will be easy for you."

-Hannah

"Do not take me for granted... again."

-Hannah

"I hope you'll understand your role in all of this. Because it may seem like a small role now, but it matters. In the end, everything matters."

-Hannah

"What did you want to hear? Because I've heard so many stories that I don't know which one is the most popular. But I do know which is the least popular. The truth."

-Hannah

"When you hold people up for ridicule, you have to take responsibility when other people act on it."

-Hannah

"You can't rewrite the past."

-Clay Jensen 

"You can't know rumors. You can hear rumors but you can't know them."
-Hannah

"Did you notice the scars you left behind? No. Probably not. Because most of them can't be seen with the naked eye."

-Hannah

"Every story I'm telling leaves so many unanswered questions."

-Hannah

"I took the longest possible route home. I explored alleys and hidden roads I never knew existed. I discovered neighborhoods entirely new to me. And finally... I discovered I was sick of this town and everything in it."

-Hannah

"With the realization that no one knew the truth about my life, my thoughts about the world were shaken. Like driving along a bumpy road and losing control of the steering wheel, tossing you--just a tad--off the road. The wheels kick up some dirt, but you're able to pull it back. Yet no matter how tightly you grip the wheel, no matter how how hard you try to drive straight, something keeps jerking you to the side. You have so little control over anything anymore. And at some point, the struggle becomes too much--too tiring--and you consider letting go. Allowing tragedy...or whatever... to happen."

-Hannah

"I couldn't stop thinking about Hannah. How she looked. How she acted. How it never matched up with what I heard. But I was too afraid to find out for sure. Too afraid she might laugh if I asked her out. Just too afraid."
-Clay

"For the longest time... it seemed that I was the only one who cared about me. Will I ever get control of my life? Will I always be shoved back and pushed around by those I trust? Will my life ever go where I want it to?"
-Hannah

"I'm listening to someone give up. Someone I knew. Someone I liked. I'm listening. But still, I'm too late."
-Clay

Eventually, she said the words that ran through my mind for the rest of that night: "You don't need to watch out for me, Clay."
But I did, Hannah. And I wanted to. I could have helped you. But when I tried, you pushed me away.
I can almost hear Hannah's voice speaking my next thought for me. "Then why didn't you try harder?"


"I guess that's the point of it all. No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push it just the same."
-Hannah

"My heart and my trust were in the process of collapsing. And that collapse created a vacuum in my chest. Like every nerve in my body was withering in, pulling away from my fingers and toes. Pulling back and disappearing. I sat. And I thought. And the more I thought, connecting the events in my life, the more my heart collapsed."
-Hannah

"Maybe I wanted someone to point a finger at me and say, "Hannah. Are you thinking about killing yourself? Please don't do that, Hannah. Please?" 
But deep down, the truth was that the only person saying that was me. Deep down, those were my words."
-Hannah

"If you could hear other people's thoughts, you'd overhear things that are true as well as things that are completely random. And you wouldn't know one from the other. It'd drive you insane. What's true? What's not? A million ideas, but what do they mean?"
-Hannah

"If my love were an ocean,
there would be no more land.
If my love were a desert,
you would see only sand.
If my love were a star--
late at night, only light.
And if my love could grow wings,
I'd be soaring in flight."
-Hannah

"If you hear a song that makes you cry and you don't want to cry anymore, you don't listen to that song anymore. But you can't get away from yourself. You can't decide to not see yourself anymore. You can't decide to turn off the noise in your head."
-Hannah

"Looking down into her eyes, I couldn't help telling her I was sorry. Sorry for waiting so long to let her know how I felt. For a brief moment, I was able to admit it. To her. To myself. But I could never admit it again. Till now. But now, it's too late. And that's why, right at this moment, I feel so much hate. Toward myself. I deserve to be on this list. Because if I hadn't been so afraid of everyone else, I might have told Hannah that someone cared. And Hannah might still be alive."
-Clay

"Soul Alone" by Hannah Baker
I meet your eyes
you don't even see me
You hardly respond
when I whisper
hello
Could be my soul mate
two kindred spirits
Maybe we're not
I guess we'll never
know


My own mother
you carried me in you
Now you see nothing
but what I wear
People ask you
how I am doing
You smile and nod
don't let it end
there


Put me
underneath God's sky and 
know me
don't just see me with you eyes
Take away
this mask of flesh and bone and
see me 
for my soul




alone


"You don't know what went on in the rest of my life. At home. Even at school. You don't know what goes on in anyone's life but your own. And when you mess with one part of a person's life, you're not messing with just that part. Unfortunately, you can't be that precise and selective. When you mess with one part of a person's life, you're messing with their entire life."
-Hannah

"You can't go back to how things were. How you thought they were. All you really have... is now."
-Hannah

"The thing is," I say, "I never really missed her till now."
He sits back in his seat and looks over at me.
"I didn't know what to make of that night. Everything that happened. I'd liked her for so long from so far away, but I never had a chance to tell her." I look down at the Walkman. "We only had one night, and by the end of that night, it seemed like I knew her even less than before. But now I know. I know where her mind was that night. Now I know what she was going through."
My voice breaks, and in that break comes a flood of tears.
-Clay

With my face pressed against the bars, I begin to cry. If anyone is walking through the park, I know they can hear me. But I don't care if they hear me because I can't believe I just heard the last words I'll ever hear from Hannah Baker... I would have helped her if she'd only let me. I would have helped her because I want her to be alive.
-Clay


Always remember, even when it feels like you are all alone and you don't have anyone to talk to, you do. There's a national phone number and Web site (1-800-SUICIDE and www.hopeline.com) available 24/7. I am always here for you. Remember to always tell the ones you love how you feel. Speak now. And keep unkind words to yourself. Love will always overcome hate.

Speak Now

"Worrying does not empty tomorrow of its troubles, it empties today of its strength."

-Mary Engelbreit

"She considered each day a miracle--which indeed it is, when you consider the number of unexpected things that could happen in each second of our fragile existences."

-Paulo Coelho

"If something was really important, fate made sure it somehow came back to you and gave you another chance. Events conspired to bring you back to where you'd been. It was what you did then that made all the difference: it was all about potential."

-Sarah Dessen

"Then the night you've been waiting for comes and suddenly your dream isn't a dream anymore, it's a reality. It's all around you like something you always knew would happen."

-Margaret Willey

"Did you know that I,

full of so many thoughts I,

only think of you?"

-Daily Haiku on Love by Tyler Knott Gregson

"Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible."

-T.E. Lawrence

"Joseph Conrad once wrote 'who knows what true happiness is...not the conventional word but the naked terror. To the lonely themselves it wears a mask. The most miserable outcast hugs some memory or some illusion.' Stephen King once wrote 'Time takes it all whether you want it to or not. Time takes it all. Time bears it away. And in the end there is only darkness, and sometimes we lose them there again.'"

-Lucas Scott, One Tree Hill

"You've got every right to a beautiful life."

-Selena Gomez

"So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around?"

-You've Got Mail

"I've been there. I wanna tell you it gets better. That pain in the pit of your stomach, that pain in your heart. It goes away...that voice in your head saying there's no way out. It's wrong. Believe me, it gets better."

-OTH

"I am just a dreamer, but you are just a dream."

-Neil Young

"And we are just breakable, breakable, breakable girls and boys."

-Ingrid Michaelson

"I dream of things that never were and ask why not."

-Robert F. Kennedy

"I got a really good heart, I just can't catch a break."

-Ryan Adams

"Love save the empty and save me."

-Erin McCarley

"It's easy saying nothing when there's nothing to say."

-K.T. Tunstall

"Bring on all the pretenders, one day, we will be remembered."

-Taylor Swift

"It's easy to be thankful for the good things. Find a way to be thankful for your troubles, and they can become your blessings."

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

-John F. Kennedy

"We can only be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

-Thornton Wilder

"For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Let us remember that as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds."

-Theodore Roosevelt

"At that we behold is full of blessings."

-William Wordsworth

"Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel."

"Your life is right now! It's not later. It's not in that time of retirement. It's not when the lover gets here. It's not when you've moved into the new house. It's not when you get the better job. Your life is now. It will always be right now. You might as well decide to start enjoying your life right now, because it's not ever going to get better than it is right now--until it gets better right now!"

"You can not run away from weakness, you must fight it out... or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand."

-OTH

"When life comes rushing at you from the darkness, who will you choose to face it with? Will it be someone you trust? Will they be wise? And will their love for you help them to guide you to the light? Or will they lose their way in the darkness. Will they make noble choices or will that person be someone untested? Someone new? Life comes rushing at you from out of the darkness. When it does--is there someone in your life you can count on? Someone who'll watch over you when you stumble and fall and in that moment give you the strength to face your fears alone."

-Lucas Scott

"You know, sometimes people play hard to get because they need to know the other person's feelings are real."

-OTH

"Losing your heart's desire is tragic but gaining your hearts desire is all you can wish for. So if that's tragic, then give me tragedy."

-OTH

"Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds. It is an ever fixed mark that looks on tempests and is never shaken. Love alters not with time's brief hours and weeks, but bears it out...even to the edge of doom."

-William Shakespeare

"Realize now that when your heart breaks, you got to fight like hell to make sure you're still alive. Because you are. And that pain you feel? That's life. The confusion and fear? That's there to remind you that somewhere out there is something better and that something is worth fighting for."

"You know that romantic notion that all the garbage and the pain is really healing and beautiful and sort of poetic? It's not. It's just garbage and it's pain. You know what's better? Love. The day that you start thinking that love is overrated is the day that you're wrong. The only thing wrong with love and faith and belief is not having it."

-OTH

"Life is short, and opportunities are rare. And we have to be vigilante in protecting them, and not only the opportunities to succeed, but the opportunity to laugh, to see the enchantment in the world, and to live. Because life doesn't owe us anything, as a matter of fact, I think that we owe something to the world."

"Now is the time for us to shine, the time when our dreams are in reach and possibilities vast. Now is the time for all of us to become the people we always dreamed of being. This is your world. You're here. You matter. The world is waiting."

"Things aren't always going to be fair in the real world. That's just the way it is. But for the most part, you get what you give."

"The rest of your life is being shaped right now. With the dreams you chase... The choices you make... and the person you decide to be. The rest of your life is a long time. And the rest of your life starts now."

"He who does not weep does not see."

"When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone."

-Tennessee Williams

"It's only an eternity of servitude. This is love."

-Genie (Aladdin)

"I'm in love with Ryan Gosling. Watching The Notebook. Does love like that really exist?"

-Danielle Harris

"Your heart knows things your mind can't explain."

"If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's we'd grab ours back."

"Mom, thanks for birthing me so beautifully. I mean look at my abs. I could be a Abercrombie model. So could Charley. Look at us, you birth beautiful kids."

-My little brother, Christian, to my mom... hahaha

"Your family is so weird."

-My stepbrother, Tanner, to me, my cousins Madison & Kyler, & my brother Christian on Thanksgiving when we were telling stories about our family.

"You are safe in my heart."

-Celine Dion (who I just learned I get to go see in concert January as a Christmas gift from my parents! I am so excited)

"I think everytime you get your heart broken, there's a little piece of that chips away, and I don't think you ever get that piece back. But I think you're able to bandage it with time and with new people and other things that make you happy."

-Demi Lovato

"Does this darkness have a name? This cruelty, this hatred. How did it find us? Did it steal into our lives or did we seek it out and embrace it? What happened to us? That we now send our children into the world like we send young men into war, hoping for their safe return. But knowing that some will be lost along the way. When did we lose our way? Consumed by the shadows, swallowed whole by the darkness. Does this darkness have a name? Is it your name?"

-Lucas Scott

"Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact."

-Henry James

"Truth is still absolute. Believe that. Even when that truth is hard and cold, and more painful than you've ever imagined. And even when truth is more cruel than any lie."

-Lucas Scott

"Every song has an ending but is that any reason not to enjoy the music?"

-Peyton Sawyer

"As we strive and strain to grasp the things we desire, the things we think will make our life better, money, popularity, fame, we ignore the things that truly matter. The simple things, the best things like friendship, family, love, the things we probably already had."

-OTH

"But I guess it's always been that way--wanting to be loved... to find someone that makes your heart ache in a good way."

-OTH

"Women are indecisive. Men who know what they want, especially when those men want them. Women want to feel wanted and swept off their feet. The whole "friendship" gimmick is not attractive to women. If that's your approach to a woman you're interested in, you're showing that you're indecisive, scared, and don't know what you're looking for. Frankly, women don't want you to realize one day what a great gem they are. They want you to see their potential right away and then pursue them."

-Kate Vershov

"There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name."

-Kate DiCamillo

"We endure so much more than we think we can, all human experience testifies to that. All we need to do is learn not to be afraid of the pain. Grit your teeth and let it hurt. Don't deny it, don't be overwhelmed by it, it will not last forever. One day the pain will be gone and you'll still be here."

-Harold Kushner

"When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak."

-Audre Lorde

"Because on some level, even though it never turns out to be true, and even though I should know better, I still expect life to be like the movies."

-E. Lockhart

"Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth."

-William Faulkner

"I think you could fall in love with anyone if you saw the parts of them that no one else gets to see. Like if you followed them around invisibly for a day and you saw them crying in their bed at night or singing to themselves as they make a sandwich or even just walking across the street and even if they were really weird and had no friends at school. I think after seeing them at their most vulnerable you wouldn't be able to help falling in love with them."

"When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too."

-Paulo Coelho

"I keep thinking you already know. I keep thinking I've sent you letters that were only ever written in my head."

-I Wrote This for You: The Invisible Postal Service

"Jump in puddles. Pretend to fly. Explore. Believe in the force. Make believe in magic like in Harry Potter. Build forts. Play in the rain. Wish on a star. Climb a tree. Be a superhero. Sleep soundly. Always dream."

"I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy. I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate. It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all."

-Leo Rosten

"Real Love Stories Have No Ending."

-Charly

"One of the things she had learned early in life was that if you discovered something that made you tighten inside you had better try to learn more about it. If you simply ignored the feeling, you would never know what might happen, and in many ways that was worse than finding out you were wrong in the first place. Because if you were wrong, you could go forward in your life without ever looking back over your shoulder and wondering what might have been."

-Nicholas Sparks

"And if this is not a happy ending, it is perhaps a happy beginning."

-Julia Hoben

"My name will someday be remembered."

-Six Word Story

"The outside world holds no interest for me without you."

-Twilight

"And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."

-The Perks of a Wallflower

&)youth goes

right on

gr

owing old

-e.e. cummings

"I'm a Etch a Sketch, shaking."

-Six Letter Story

"I don't want to get old. I have this very silly fear, dear friend, that one day I'll be old, without ever having really been young."

"The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something."

-Kurt Vonnegut

"Choose compassion over judgment. You usually have no idea what someone is really going through."

-Me

"May my heart be kind, my mind fierce, and my spirit brave." 

-Kate Forsyth

"I'm not going anywhere because I'm stronger than that and I have a million reasons to be here."

-Jonah Mowry

"Do not look for a perfect person. Just find the right person."

-Dave Reysono

"I want what Cory and Topanga have..."

-Me