Book of the Week: "13 Reasons Why" by Jay Asher

For those people who thought the Netflix series of "13 Reasons Why" was bad, I would strongly recommend not reading the book. I'm not sure which was harder to get through, this book or "What Made Maddy Run." But I digress.

I, for one, really enjoy the Netflix series. It handles issues people deal with on a daily basis in real-life head on, which is what makes it difficult to watch and why many people don't like the show. Because I watched the show from the first season to season three, I wanted to finally read the book and make a comparison between the two.

Here's what I found out: the Netflix series did a better job focusing not just on Hannah Baker, but go in depth on the people on her tapes. The people, who in Hannah's mind, did her wrong.

We learned through the series that Justin Foley was more than just a jock. He was a person from a broken home with a drug addicted mother, who made poor choices in her romantic relationships thus allowing Justin be sexually assaulted at the age of five. It was why Justin cared deeply for Bryce Walker because in his words "Bryce was the only one who gave a shit about [him]." Bryce took care of him and had his back.

We learned in the series, the new kid, Alex Standall, fell victim to something that everyone feels in high school. He wanted to be included by the popular kids and desperately wanted them to like him so he would do anything - even if it meant ruining a friendship. And throughout the series, you saw how it affected him. Alex spiraled into a depression and all of his rage ended up boiling to the surface, resulting in him pushing a, physically and mentally, broken Bryce into the water. (SPOILER ALERT!)

The book made it seem that Tyler Down was just a creepy, weird kid who had a fetish with Hannah Baker, but deep down he was troubled and angry, only made worse by Montgomery de la Cruz. Which brings me to my next point: Monty.

The book never mentions Monty's character. Monty appeared to be a manufactured character by series, originally intended to a minor antagonist as Bryce's best friend and then later developed into the major bully in season three. But his character was needed. While he was a bully, targeting Tyler most of the time, Monty was also a human being. As we learned in in season three, his rage came from a father who beat the crap out of him as well as an unwillingness to accept his sexuality. Maybe if Winston Williams came along sooner he could've been saved too.

In the book and even in the first season, Zach Dempsey was kind of a dick to Hannah stealing her notes of encouragement in peer communications class. But in the later seasons we learned of his and Hannah's relationship as well as a bond between him and Bryce because of his mother. Zach was your typical star athlete and football captain, who masked his flaws. His anger was unleashed on Bryce after Bryce purposely injured him during the Homecoming fight. (Oops ... SPOILER ALERT!)

Clay Jensen was an all around nice guy and would never hurt anybody, but I as mentioned in a previous post, he was so mismatched which made it easy for the sheriff point at him. The series showed Jessica Davis attempting to overcome the physical and emotional pain Bryce caused her.

And finally, Bryce Walker himself. The writers of the series are sure talented, making Bryce appear like the victim - which he was in the end. Bryce may have done some horrible, horrible, horrible things, but it doesn't change the fact that he was still a human being. He had his friends' (Justin, Monty, Zach) backs. Kudos to the writers on that part.