Plot of the Story/Analysis

Clay Jensen returns home from school one day to find an anonymously-sent package on his doorstep. Inside the package is a shoebox which contains seven cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate who recently killed herself. The tapes were initially mailed to one classmate with instructions to listen to them and then pass them on to the next guilty person on the tapes. According to Hannah, each person on the tapes is responsible for her suicide and the tapes will explain why. On the tapes, Hannah explains to twelve people how they played a role in her death by giving thirteen reasons to explain why she commits suicide. Hannah has given a second set of tapes to one of their classmates and warns the people on the tapes that if they do not pass them on, a copy of the recordings will be made public to the entire school. The tapes also come with a map that listeners are meant to physically follow as they listen to her story. The narration moves back and forth between Hannah's and Clay's thoughts and actions. Through the audio tapes, Hannah reveals her pain and suffering that leads to her death. When Clay gets to his story, Hannah reveals that she doesn't actually blame him for her suicide. But Clay realizes that even though he didn't do anything bad to Hannah, he let rumors about her stand in the way of their relationship. After staying up all night listening to the tapes, Clay decides that he has to go to school and move on with his life. The novel ends with Clay going to school the next day and mailing the tapes to the next person. When he arrives, he sees Skye Miller, another possible suicide risk, and walks toward her, saying her name. The story on the cassette tapes helps build the plot in the tense moments. The plot of the novel traps the reader as they are transported into Clay’s footsteps. With every question he faces and every problem he comes across, the reader cannot help but think about the situations on their own. In this way, by the end of the novel, the reader is able to move beyond the novel and is forced to look into their experiences that they face on a daily basis.  By the end of the novel, Clay is able to understand what Hannah's life could have been if he had taken the time to see the world through her eyes. The plot of the story was uncovered layer by layer through the tapes, highlighting the importance of each individual event.