Thursday, February 17, 2011

Th1rteen R3asons Why- Giveaway and Winner

The winner of last's week's giveaway of MATCHED is ...

The Book Pixie!

Email me at muchlanguage (at) gmail (dot) com with your address.
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Today I'm giving away one of my favourite books OF ALL TIME!

Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher


QUICK SUMMARY:

Clay recieves a set of tapes from Hannah, who committed suicide. On these tapes, she tells of the events which led up to her death.

MY ONE THING:

I'm sorry, but I'm doing two things. Because there are two things that stood out for me above all else.

1. DUAL NARRATIVE

They always warn you about switching perspectives. In fact, most books these days, YA especially, hug one character pretty tightly. But Jay Asher pulls off this technique flawlessly. He sets it up so that you always know whether you're reading Hannah or Clay. And using cassette tapes to make a dead girl talk? Brilliant!

2. THE REASONS

I'm not suicide expert or anything, but one of the things you hear - on movies, from friends, on the news - is "I had no idea." People always think that they should see these huge pointers before someone commits (or attempts) suicide. But I'm a long-time depression sufferer. And even though that's not the same thing, I know that triggers can be really small. Microscopic.

I also know that little things add up. If an atom fell on you, you wouldn't even feel it. Even if it was the heaviest atom in the periodic table. (I should so know what that is, but I have no idea, and I'm well-drugged on Conta-c right now, and not particularly inclined to look it up. ) It's just an atom, right. But if you got together a bunch of atoms and made, let's see, the Eiffel Tower, and that fell on you... well, you'd definitely feel that.

People are more fragile than you think sometimes. To you it might just be a giggle. To someone else, it might be the last straw.

If I could my mouth for a million years, I couldn't tell you how much this book affected me.

Today's rules:
1. Be a follower
2. Open internationally
3. Answer this question in the comments "Did you ever do or say some little (bad) thing to someone and felt guilty after?"
4. Open until next Wednesday, 11.59 pm EST.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Totally going to enter this because, 1) I read your blog and would comment anyway, and 2) I really want to read this book.

Answer: I try to say at least one regrettable thing daily. It keeps me grounded ...

Does it have to be a serious answer? :-)

Aleeza said...

yayyy--thanks for the giveaway! ive been wanting to read this book forever. I <3 contemporary fiction and everyone's been raving about it ever since it got released.
to answer your question: hell yes. i say stuff like that all the time to my younger-by-three-years siter. weve got this sort of a best-friend bond, but since we ARE sisters, we fight on a regular basis, and i always end up saying stuff i apologize for later.
and im not proud of this fact, by the way. ahem.

Natalie Aguirre said...

I really loved this book too. So did my daughter. I have a copy so give it to someone else. Did you know it's optioned to be made into a movie?

Unknown said...

I loved 13 Reasons Why. Oh, and I gave you an award on my blog www.katherinescott.blogspot.com

Lisa Potts said...

The book sounds great. Thanks for the chance to win.

I used to say things I felt guilty about and still do sometimes, but I try to keep from inserting my foot into my mouth as often these days.

Jasmine1485 said...

I'm following via GFC as Jasmine1485 :)

Thank you for the chance to win this book, I have my own battles with depression and I'd be very interested to read it.

I'm in better control of what I say these days, having matured some, but I regret a few things I said to loved ones in anger when I was younger.

Kate1485 at hotmail.com

Sidrah said...

On your blog for the first time =)

Followed.

I have not read this book =| but it sounds interesting.

I did awful things with my little bro like snatching his candy and eating it. Then enjoy watching him weep. God, I was evil. I feel bad about it so now I try being nice. It is boring. I still say pretty bad things =/

Book Flame said...

I just found your blog and am now a follower. This book sounds very intriguing. And of course I have said things that i've felt guilty about later mainly to my best friends whose relationship with me is thicker than blood but we are so close we fight just like real siblings.

bookflamereviews@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Just a few days after meeting someone, I repeated a comment I had heard. She was very defensive that this was just a stereotype and wasn't true. I felt terrible for offending her. We're now best friends and roommates,though, so we were obviously able to move past it.