“Thirteen Reasons Why,” written by Jay Asher, is a best-selling young-adult fiction novel of The New York Times.

Clay Jensen, a somewhat shy high school student, returns home from school one day to find an anonymously* sent package sitting on his doorstep. Upon opening it, he discovers that it is a shoebox containing seven cassette tapes recorded by the late Hannah Baker, his classmate and emotional crush* who recently committed suicide.

The tapes were initially mailed to one classmate with instructions to pass them from one student to another, in the style of a chain letter. In the tapes, Baker explains to 13 people how they played a role in her death, by giving 13 reasons to explain why she took her life.

Baker has given a second set of tapes to one of their classmates, the identity of whom Jensen later discovers, and warns the people on the tapes that if they do not pass them on, the second set will be leaked* to the entire student body.

(SD-Agencies)