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Clay Jensen, a high school boy, receives a shoe box that has 7 audiotapes. He starts to listen to them and he realizes that they're from Hannah Baker, a girl who Clay had a crush on and who took her life a few weeks earlier. She said that if you're listening to the tapes you're one of the reasons why she took her life. And Clay doesn't understand why he's included in this group and so he listens to figure out why.
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Clay immediately beings to listen to the tapes. The first tape is about Justin Foley, a senior at Clay's high school. He was Hannah's first kiss and her 'official' boyfriend. Justin was on the list because he bragged about their short term relationship and started rumors that they had done more than kissed- but they didn't. This started the "snowball" effect as Hannah called it. Everything after this just added to it.
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The next tape was about Alex Standall. Alex had written a "freshman class - who's hot, who's not" list and put Hannah under "hot" and his ex-girlfriend (also Hannah's ex-best friend) under "not. Even though it was just a joke, people saw it as an excuse to think they could take advantage of Hannah.
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The fourth tape is about a Peeping Tom, also known as Tyler Down. He is the student-life photographer for the yearbook, who took pictures of the student body, literally. One day when Hannah's parents were out of town and she settled down for bed in her room, she heard clicks of a camera. She tried denying the fact someone was out there. She had a friend come over to try and catch the peeping tom by tricking him, and they did. He stopped coming after that, but Hannah never felt safe again.
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The girl from the last tape who helped Hannah catch Tyler, the perfect Courtney Crimsen, is the next person up. Courtney has a squeaky-clean image, and was liked by everyone. But Hannah saw through her facade. Courtney invites Hannah to go to a party, but only to use her for a ride. At the party she spread a rumor about some very naughty things Hannah had in her dresser, making Hannah's reputation worse than it already was.
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On Valentine's Day, Hannah was asked on a date by Marcus Cooley, the next victim on Hannah's list. She had agreed to meet him at Rosie's Diner. Hannah waited there for about thirty minutes until he showed up. They had sat for a while, talking and laughing, but then Marcus started sliding his hand up her leg. She tried to get him to stop, but when he got too far, she shoved him out of their booth. He called her a tease, loud enough for everyone to hear, then stormed out, worsening her reputation.
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For Hannah, poetry was always an outlet. But Ryan Shaver ruined it for her. She started attending a poetry group at the community library, hoping to write happy and cheerful poems. Ryan also attended the class and they began talking. Soon they shared their entire notebooks of poetry. He then took one of her poems she wrote and put that poem in the class newspaper anonymously, letting people make fun of it. Now even her own thoughts were up for ridicule.
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The next tape revolves around a few previously mentioned names. Soon after Clay reluctantly left, Justin Foley came in carrying an extremely drunk Jessica Davis. Justin allowed Bryce Walker in, where he took advantage of, or basically raped Jessica Davis. Hannah partially takes the blame for this, as she could've stopped it because she was in the closet while this was happening, but then again, so could have Justin.
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The next contender on the list is about Jenny Kurtz, a cheerleader at the school. After that dreadful party, Jenny offered to give Hannah a ride. While driving, Jenny hits a stop sign and knocks it over, and when Hannah wants to call the cops so it can be repaired, Jenny tells her to get out of the car. Later that night, there was a fatal car accident at that intersection where she knocked down the sign. Hannah feels as if she could've prevented it, but she didn't.
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In this tape, Hannah made her choice. She was going to commit suicide with pills the next day. There had recently been a party, and she was walking by when none other than Bryce Walker and Courtney Crimson asked her to join them in the hot tub and she did. She joined them in her undergarments. Courtney left, leaving Hannah and Bryce. He took advantage of her, but she let him, even if she didn't like the things he was doing to her. She just wanted her world to collapse around herself and be over.
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Clay went to the park where Hannah had her first kiss with Justin to finish the tapes. He starts that last side of the final tape, but doesn't hear anything. Finally, he hears Hannah, with warmth, say her final words, "'Thank you'".
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The third reason in Hannah's story is about her close friend (or used to be) Jessica Davis. They were both new to the school, so they quickly became fast friends, along with Alex Standall. When Alex's list came out, Jessica was furious. One day they met at their cafe hangout, and Jessica told her that she knew the rumors. Even though the rumors were not true, Jessica ended up punching Hannah. This showed Hannah betrayal and made her feel as if she had no true friends anymore.
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In one of her classes, Peer Communications, there were bags for the students where other students could anonymously say what they felt about each other. What Zach Dempsey did in that class was terrible for Hannah, which is why he made the list. Hannah was going through a tough time and needed those anonymous compliments, even the ones she wrote for herself, but Zach took that away from her. She caught him red-handed stealing the notes out of her bag. Zach took away her only source of confidence.
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Clay finally reaches his tape, but Hannah finally says that he does not belong on the list. When Hannah found out Clay was going to a party, she had to sneak out because she wanted to see him. Clay never went to parties and the fact that Clay was going to a party was a shock. They had talked for a while, and ended up making out, but nothing more. Eventually, Hannah pushed him off her and asked him to leave. After he finally left, she sat and cried. That was when she started creating her list.
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This tape is Hannah's last effort, and she's going to her counselor seeking help. She tries talking to Mr. Porter, and they talk about what happened with Bryce, He gives Hannah two options: talk to Bryce about it or just pretend nothing ever happened in the first place, but she doesn't like either. Hannah finds Mr. Porter to be little help so she leaves, hoping maybe he'd chase after her and stop her. This made her realize that no one cared enough about her.
