Post #6: Book 3 Listicle

 

Five reasons why 13 Reasons Why was Cliché and Unrealistic

 

          Jay Asher's 13 Reasons Why is a book about a high school girl who leaves behind a set of tapes after committing suicide. The tapes contain stories she tells about the experiences that led to her decision to end her life. She gives instructions to pass on the tapes to each person she mentions, each person she blames for killing herself. I think the author wanted the reader to see Hannah, the suicidal teenager, as a relatable hero of sorts. A girl who's life was so bad she had no choice but to kill herself and make sure everyone responsible knew why. The book for me was a huge disappointment and I felt the plot was cliché and unrealistic. I was expecting a book about suicide to be a little more insightful and contain more depth, but I found the book to be somewhat immature and dramatic.

         

          Reason 1- The first unrealistic thing about the book is the idea behind the tapes. "Rule number one: You listen. Number two: You pass it on. Hopefully, neither one is easy for you." Hannah states these rules at the beginning of her tapes and goes on to explain how they will be released to everyone if they fail to pass them on. I find it unbelievable that someone would actually leak the tapes of a girl who could do nothing about it. The tapes contain secrets that could really get kids in trouble and maybe that's what they deserve. But most of the people mentioned on the tapes had no idea what they were doing and do not deserve what Hannah is threatening. I know if someone left me the copy of the tapes to release, there's no way I'd be able or willing to do it.

          Reason 2- The source of many of Hannah Baker's troubles came from not one but four different high school parties she chose to attend; chose being the key word. Nothing about theses parties was different from anything you would see on TV or in a movie. "Did I mention we were two and a half blocks away? That's how loud it was. That party was absolutely begging for a police visit." Drinking, loud music, property destruction- textbook high school party. If you've seen one show or movie with this kind of party, well, you've seen them all. And that's exactly how I felt while reading this book. The worst part is, Hannah could have at any time chosen not to attend any of these parties and avoided all the problems that resulted. To me it seemed she was seeking drama and attention.

          Reason 3- The boys. Many of the people mentioned on the tapes are boys who are disrespectful and treat Hannah badly. The boys often tried to do inappropriate things to Hannah, which made her very upset. "For everyone listening,  let me be clear. I did not say no or push his hand away. All I did was turn my head, clench my teeth, and fight back tears. And he saw that. He even told me to relax." Of course this situation would be disturbing to any girl in high school, but Hannah even says she didn't try to stop it. She explained how she went to the party knowing this would happen. I find this so unrealistic. I can't believe that any girl would put themselves in this situation when they didn't want anything to happen. Hannah literally seeks trouble so she can feel bad for herself when bad things happen.

          Reason 4- Along with the tapes, the book is told from the perspective of Clay, a classmate and somewhat of a secret admirer of Hannah's. In my opinion, Clay is a very stereotypical male teenage character. He's the shy boy who has a crush on a pretty, popular girl that never got his chance with her. "Just hearing my name, the pain in my head doubles. I feel an agonizing twist in my heart." Throughout the book he makes comments and expresses his thoughts about what Hannah says on the tapes. The things he says are so cliché and overdramatic, it was hard for me to read without it sounding sarcastic. And of course the only reason he's on the tapes is so she can apologize to him as if there's no one else who ever did anything right in her life. The real people she should be apologizing to are the other people on the tapes who's lives she's ruining.

          Reason 5- A very cliché ending to a very cliché book. After listening to the tapes, Clay returns to school and recognizes that a girl he once knew may be feeling the same way Hannah felt, and by reaching out to her the book hints that he may have saved her life. "A flood of emotion rushes into me. Pain and anger. Sadness and pity. But most surprising of all, hope. . . Two steps behind her; I say her name. 'Skye.'" When I read the last line of the book, the first thing that popped into my head was who the heck is Skye? The book maybe mentions her once in the beginning, but doesn't say much about her. The author couldn't have chosen a more insignificant character to end the story. Of course Clay becomes the hero at the end of the book who saves another girl when he couldn't have saved Hannah. I see what the author was trying to do, but the cliché ending left me disappointed and feeling like I had wasted my time.

          As much as I talked about the negatives of the book, it wasn't completely terrible. I think part of the problem was that I read this book as a 17 year old. I probably would've enjoyed it a lot more if I had read it in middle school. The book just seemed immature and I felt like the author way oversimplified suicide. The idea behind the book, although something that would never happen, was interesting and was the reason I decided to read it. I think it could've been a really good book, but unfortunately it fell short. The characters seemed like they were taken straight from High School Musical and maybe that's why I found the book to be completely unrelatable on every level.

 



Post#5: Non-Fiction

          For a book to be considered non-fiction, I think at least 95% of the book needs to be true. It's okay to change very small details, as long as they don't affect the integrity of the story. When you are classifying a book as non-fiction, you are making the claim that what is written is fact and truth. If the story is over embellished or has too many made-up parts, the line between what is truth and what is not is so blurred that the credibility of the story, in my opinion, is gone. Readers might see that one part is made-up and then may doubt the rest of the book that might actually be truth. I agree with what Seth Greenland said in one of the videos that we need to allow room for forgetfulness and not being able to remember small details that may need to be made-up. In this case you aren't exactly lying, but just filling in the gaps. Making up dialogue is also acceptable because most people aren't going to remember conversations word for word. As long as it is realistic dialogue and a conversation that could actually have happened, then I think it is fine.
          If you're going to write a memoir that is half made-up, then it's no longer a memoir, but rather a work of mostly fiction that is based on events of that person's life. If it is necessary to make-up most of the story in order to write a better book, I think that's fine as long as you are not claiming that it is the truth. Authors who try to pass off a work of fiction as a memoir are very likely to get caught. They are risking their credibility as an author when the story they wrote was probably still very good and could have still been successful had they not lied. When people go to the movies, they expect that what they are seeing is very inaccurate and expect things are changed in order to make a good movie. When people pick up a book labeled as a memoir, they are expecting the truth. When readers find out that the stories they thought were true are actually lies, they may have trouble trusting the authenticity of future books they read. The authors who lie not only affect the readers, but also other authors and their own reputation.
          I think how we label books is very important. Distinguishing between fiction and non-fiction is a big deal to me. I personally want to know if what I'm reading is made-up or not. Whether it is fiction or non-fiction may not change my opinion of the story, but I think it is still important to distinguish fact from fiction. If we did not classify books, it would make it so much easier for authors to lie and not be held responsible. It would make it incredibly hard for anyone to believe a book is actually factual. I think it's fine to have a book that is both fiction and non-fiction, as long as it is stated that some parts are fact and some is fiction.