Madeline
When Netflix made Thirteen Reasons Why into a show, it turned the book of the same title into something that more people digested. Netflix brought to light how being a teen is not easy these days to the masses. To help people understand what young women go through and what the consciences may be. It was not easy twenty years ago when I went through it, and it seems as though it is even more difficult now. Thirteen Reasons Why started as a book that is not the normal Young Adult read and highlighted the dark side to being a teen.
Premise of Thirteen Reasons Why
It starts with the main character receiving a series of tapes. When he listens to the tapes he realizes they were recorded by his crush, Hannah, who recently killed herself. Each tape Hannah covers a different person who caused something or multiple things to happen that affected her. And eventually pushed her to end her life. There are a total of thirteen tapes. Each of these tapes covering each of these people is the one of the thirteen reasons why.
The Pressures of Being a Teen
It is impressed upon that this was a normal girl with normal teen problems. The reasons arise when it comes to social pressure and rumors that spread about her. She witnesses a rape of another young girl. She is called a slut. She is stocked. She is deprived receiving the complements she needs to hear in a moment of darkness. None of the activities Hannah experiences in this book are that outrageous for a teenage girl to experience during the few short years of high school. And once a teenaged girl is pushed down far enough, it may feel like there is no other way to pick back up.
Final Thoughts
This was a tough book to read and a tough show to watch. I had put years between watching and reading for a good reason. As someone who was at once a teenaged girl, the stories Hannah describes hit close to home. It is not hard to feel the pain Hannah felt as the story brings you through each of the reasons why.
