TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY (Jay Asher)

My doctoral student’s hired statistician killed himself last week. She met with him on a particular Friday to discuss histograms, standard deviations and the like and she never heard from him again. He was found dead in his home a week after that meeting.
After hearing of such a devastating incident, those of us who remain on the planet ask all of the usual questions: Was he depressed? Did anyone know he planned to do this? What was he thinking? Did we see the signs? Of course, there are no real answers. We speculate and then presume the one big thing (lost love, lost job, lost fortune) that could have resulted in such a tragedy.

Sometimes, though, there is no one “big” thing. TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY reveals that, sometimes, a series of little things—seemingly insignificant things—could result in a person ending his or her own life. And that is Hannah Baker’s story.

Hannah is already dead by the time the novel opens. However, prior to her suicide, she deliberately and systematically narrated thirteen audio tapes that reveal the thirteen incidents and people who tormented her to the point of self destruction. She packed the numbered tapes (and an accompanying map) into a box and shipped the package to the person responsible for Reason #1 with instructions to a) listen to all thirteen tapes, b) visit the place on the map that accompanies his narrative, and c) then pack everything up and ship the tapes and the map to the person responsible for Reason #2, etc. You can listen to the tapes here: http://www.thirteenreasonswhy.com/tapes.php .

Selfish narcissists, empathetic humanitarians and everyone in between should read TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY. Hannah’s chilling legacy reminds us that our words and actions definitely matter and that it is possible to be held psychologically accountable for the same.

Unfortunately for his friends and family (or perhaps fortunately), the statistician didn’t leave a note or a YouTube video or a series of audio tapes to explain the reasons for his own suicide. His loved ones will never know the probably complicated reason (or R3ASONS) for his untimely death and will probably speculate about it for the rest of their own lives. Very simply, though, he has become and will remain a statistic. And isn’t that ironic.