One day, highschool stundent Clay receives a box of 7 audio tapes. Each side tells us about one person and his or her involvement in the events leading to Hannah’s death. The tapes were recorded and posted by Hannah herself before her suicide.

As we read Asher’s novel, we follow Clay around his town, visiting the places that were important to Hannah and, of course, listening to Hannah’s story. This is a clever move of the author because it gives us two first-person narrators with whom we can identify. We hear the same story from two different perspectives which sometimes complement, sometimes challenge each other. The author develops the idea of a snowball effect or a vicious circle where Hannah’s compromised reputation leads others to think and act in certain ways, thereby even further destroying her reputation. Sooner or later a point is reached where Hannah can do nothing to control the damage, making her a tragic figure in the classical sense.

The novel is structured along the 13 tape sides which gives it a clear structure – easy to read in small portions, very youth-friendly. Because, after the general plot and setp has been established, the chapters can be read and understood and discussed independent from each other, this structure is also very teacher- and TV-friendly.

The characters could have been given a bit more depth, the plot might have allowed for a bit less predictability but altogether the novel is certainly worth reading and sleeping over.

Almost all the pupils in my course said they liked the book and thought it an important book. However, there seems to be quite a flood of teenage-suicide related books and TV-shows. And maybe some of the likes really related to the Netflix show, not the book.