Teen suicide is a real issue. I've read stats: Teens who were abused usually kill themselves more than teens who weren't abused. More GLBT teens kill themselves before their straight teen counterparts do. Teens who are bullied usually kill themselves before teens who don't. There are usually more reasons, but those are some good pointers. Now how was this book relevant to suicide? I'll sum it up with this and say that this song is more relevant to teen suicide than this book:
Yeah. A note on that: Elton wasn't serious on killing himself. He's not serious on any teen, or anyone killing themselves. This, however, understands teen suicide better than this book.
Why did Hannah kill herself? She had pretty weak reasons. The only I could understand was she was mildly sexually harassed. She could have easily stopped it by going to the principal. I know it might be embarrassing or even feel shameful to report that someone said she had a cute butt (*cough, cough, hot ass*, I'm picturing the George Michael butt slap from the 80's). But even I can't see that as why someone would kill herself unless it was constant or she'd been sexually abused. She also had a Peeping Tom, and the she invited someone over so they could "marvel" at how great it was. Here's what this book is saying: "Don't call the police on those bastards." If she felt too afraid to call the police why did she bring over a sort of friend? What the hell! That was maybe the strongest point she had and that was it.
Hannah Baker really was weak on why she killed herself. She wasn't constantly bullied and it seemed like she made the tapes to blame people. They may have done a bad thing or two to her but saying they "made" her kill herself is a false statement. It is your choice to kill yourself; people only influence you on this.
What if Hannah Baker had been abused? What if she'd been neglected? What if she'd had some handicap? What if she'd been a lesbian? What if she was trans? What if she was bullied? Poor? Had depression? Grieving? Cutting herself? No, Asher gave her weak reasons and a pity party and them she killed herself. Blah.
Girls in this book are all snotty brats, Hannah being one the most. Men are all chauvinist pigs who just want sex (lots of guys don't just want sex, they want to be understood by others). But Clay, of great flat character Clay with no personality whatsoever, is the good guy! He isn't horny! He's nice! Hannah had a crush on him! But he never dated her! It should be Clay's fault!
So flat characters with constantly changing voices between Clay and Hannah, we get this weakly written book that doesn't seem relevant to teen suicide. I felt no sympathy for Hannah, I didn't like Clay, and everyone else sucked, too. Asher wrote a story that had so much potential but instead wrote about a girl who didn't even have depression or a disease to make me feel she was relevantly suicidal. She just was. Now all those thirteen people will be traumatized for life by a snotty girl who wants to blame them for all her problems.
I wish I could blame all my problems by a rush of blood to the head. But that's not a good enough reason. In a way I want to buy a gun and start a war, but I really have nothing to fight for. War is just a bad thing and I don't want to cause it. It would never be worth it.
Hannah Baker did all those things. Asher wrote her problems to support her suicide but could barely think of anything good. Why didn't Dave Pelzer kill himself? I've always wondered this. He's now an anti-child abuse supporter. But what he went through, how did he let himself live through that? I wouldn't be surprised if a kid living through something like him did kill themselves. Asher over glorified suicide with an attention hog teen and tried to look relevant. He failed so bad. I hope no one who really is suicidal reads this trash. I used to be suicidal, too. I can understand why so many people kill themselves, but never Hannah Baker. And I don't support suicide.
May those dead due to suicide rest in peace. Please contact these websites if you are a suicidal teen:
1 star.
I still wish I could blame everything on a rush of blood to the head.
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