I discovered this book via a CNN article about the most challenged books of 2012. (For the record, it was number 3, coming in one above Fifty Shades of Grey, and two behind the Captain Underpants series, which took top honors last year. See the entire list here.) My subversive side came out, and I requested from my local library (which, thankfully, doesn’t listen to that nonsense), and I read it in two days.
The story begins in present tense, with high school student Clay receiving a package containing audio tapes. There’s no note, no instructions, just seven tapes, each side numbered one through thirteen. Clay finds an old tape recorder in the garage, pushes play, and hears the voice of his friend Hannah Baker, who killed herself two weeks before the story begins. There are thirteen tapes, Hannah explains, because there are thirteen reasons for her suicide. Each tape references another person, and each person is charged with sending the package on.
Cannonball Read V 