13 Reasons Why is a story about friendship, suicide, and bullying. Before I get more into this review, I’ll be comparing the book to the show (1st season only). Please note this is entirely my opinion, and you have every right to disagree. 

To begin, 13 Reasons Why has an important story to both book and show fans, I’m not saying it’s not a good show, personally, I enjoyed both, but one thing that bothered me in the show was the intense amount of uncertainty the characters experienced. I’m Jay Ahser’s novel, Clay is listening to the tapes with out question, he’s like “oh yeah, that guy’s definitely a creep” “dude’s a perv” “that girl acts all perfect, why’d you trust her Hannah?” I get the producers had to hook the watcher and make things more intense, but I wish not everything Hannah said was a question. And while it is fun to imagine an alternate universe where Hannah wasn’t telling the truth, but Clay’s tape was honest, so why shouldn’t anyone else’s? I just don’t believe the book was set up in this way, Clay was agreeing with her the whole time. 

Now, to the tapes themselves. This is where I jump to the Netflix show’s defense after I point out how petty the 13 reasons seemed. Personally being bullied, and driven to a depressive state, I’d like to comment that the show didn’t seem very realistic to me. Perhaps this was from a lack of explaining the books gave, or perhaps I had my hopes too high for this series, but I always found myself wondering: “I get that everyone’s different, but how did that upset her to the point of suicide?” The first couple were believable, but I felt after that, she stared whining. Once again, this may be an inconvience simply on the director’s part, but they could’ve easily explained better, and tried harder to have the same, unquestionable feel as the book.

I'd like to go deeper into the show’s defense. To begin, the show wasn’t terribly incorrect and followed the book fairly well. The show also had to strive harder to keep their watchers entertained, therefore making it understandable they twisted the dtory a bit for dramatic effect. 

In conclusion, I wish the producers made the series more realistic, gave the series more certainly, and weren’t too concerned about their watchers. I would also like to add this book is very enjoyable, and a must-read. Trust me, even for those of you who aren’t ‘book people’ this story is very important, read the book, spread the word. Even listen to it on audio book. It’ll be worth it.