Hannah Baker was a normal high school girl.  She had friends, went to school, had nice parents,...  Hannah lost all of these things through her suicide.  Her death was sad for many, but became much more upsetting later for twelve different people.

            Thirteen Reasons Why is a story about a boy named Clay Jensen, who one day receives a mysterious package.  He opens the box to find seven tapes, each having a number on each side.  The numbers range from one to 13.  Clay starts to listen to the tapes, and shockingly hears the voice of Hannah Baker.  These tapes include each of the thirteen reasons why Hannah Baker committed suicide.  While listening to the tapes, Clay goes all around the city to the places Hannah describes in the tapes.  This allows Clay to experience the “whole Hannah experience.”  The book also describes Clay’s feelings about Hannah’s actions.

            The tapes begin with the story of Hannah’s first boyfriend, Justin Foley.  This person gave Hannah her first kiss.  Hannah describes this kiss as being just like a dream.  But, Hannah did not expect that that dream would become a nightmare.  Justin spread rumors that they did more than just kiss on that night.  This was clearly not true.  These rumors begin Hannah’s undeserved, bad reputation.  Hannah’s new status encouraged Alex Standall to include Hannah’s name on his “Who’s Hot and Who’s Not” list, which made Hannah very upset.  Hannah wanted a good reputation at school, but this desire was starting to get further away from her.  Hannah decided then to buy a candy bar.  At the store, a boy mistreated Hannah by touching Hannah in an inappropriate spot.  He would not have done this if there was no list.  This list also split friendship ties between Hannah and Jessica Davis.  Jessica was Hannah’s friend since the beginning of the school year.  The two would go to a coffee shop and comfort each other when they had problems.  But Jessica was mad at Hannah because Hannah was higher up on the list than Jessica.  Hannah’s inclusion on the list also encouraged Tyler Down to take pictures of Hannah when she was alone at home.  Hannah found out and stopped him, but what he did made Hannah feel less safe.

            In order to stop Tyler from taking the pictures, Hannah sought help from a popular girl named Courtney Crimsen.   This made them friends, so they went to a party together.  At the party, Courtney spread even more rumors about Hannah, just to increase her own popularity.  It is now Valentine’s Day.  The school runs matchmaking program during that time, and one of Marcus Coolly, who was on Hannah’s list, asks Hannah out on a date.  After showing up a few hours late, he tries to abuse Hannah.  He thought that this was OK to do because of the rumors.  Hannah now thinks that she would never gain control of her life.

            The rumors also encouraged another boy to ask Hannah out on a date.  However, this time Hannah refuses to go out on the date.  Being very upset with this, the boy begins taking notes that friends would leave for Hannah.  These notes served as Hannah’s sole source of encouragement.  The absence of these encouraging notes allow Hannah to get upset and start thinking of suicide.

            Hannah, being very upset, decided to take a happy poetry class.  She thought of poetry as an escape from reality.  This poetry class is where she meets Ryan Shaver.  They both share poetry that they wrote.  Unfortunately, Ryan does not keep the poetry private; he put it into the school newspaper.  Hannah was very hurt by everyone trying to uncover the hidden meanings of her poem.

            Hannah later went to a party, where she saw Clay and connected with him.  Hannah did not want her bad reputation to spread onto Clay, so she pushed him away.  Then Justin Foley led Jessica Davis into the room that Hannah was in.  Justin allowed Jessica to get raped by letting a boy into the room who is known to abuse girls.  Hannah then decided to go home.  Since Hannah was too drunk to drive, Jenny Kurtz offered to drive her home.  On the way to Hannah’s house they hit a stop sign.  This missing stop sign caused an accident that killed someone.  Hannah is now convinced to end her life.  Before she kills herself, she decides to go to an after party.  At this after party, she is raped by the same boy who abuses Hannah at the drugstore and rapes Jessica at a previous party.  Hannah decides to give life one more try by going to a social worker.  This social worker does not tell Hannah what she wants to hear.  This is where the tapes end.