Netflix debuted its newest series 13 Reasons Why on March 31. The series is based on the 2007 novel by the same name by Jay Asher. Although the Netflix series was originally created to be a one-season miniseries in order to stay true to the book, there are rumors that there may be a second season due to its popularity among viewers. I read 13 Reasons Why roughly two years ago over winter break in the eighth grade. At the time, there had been rumors of a movie adaptation of the book and that’s why I decided to read it in the first place. As I was watching the series I noticed a lot of things that were different between the two. There were both small nit-picky changes and changes that changed the plot of the series. In my opinion the book was much better than the series. Both the book and the series are narrated by Clay Jensen, but the series goes into the other characters’ lives in much more detail. This isn’t really a problem, but the book is pretty much just Clay listening to the tapes and moving to all the locations on the map provided by Hannah, as well as occasionally being interrupted by his friend Tony. The book feels much more intimate in comparison to the series for this reason. The biggest aspect of the series that differed from the book was the lawsuit that Hannah’s parents were pursuing against the school. The lawsuit forced Hannah’s parents and the other characters to have a much bigger role in the series than they had in the book. The series allows the viewer to get to know the other characters who were allegedly involved in Hannah’s decision on a more personal level as well as the repercussions of Hannah’s suicide. Another big change in the series was the order of the tapes. Clay was ninth on the list in the book but eleventh in the series. Number nine in the series was Justin Foley’s second tape. Bryce Walker was twelfth on the list both in the series and in the book, but he didn’t even receive the tapes in the series because Clay skipped over him. Also, Clay recorded Bryce’s confession to raping Hannah and created a fourteenth tape to add to Hannah’s collection, but this never happened in the book. Since the book was published in 2007 and the series premiered in 2017, there are some minor culture changes. The use of cell phones and social media is much more prevalent in the series rather than the book just because of the ten-year gap between the two. Word traveled by mouth of Hannah being a “slut” in the book rather than by the sending of pictures in the Netflix series. Something about the series that bothered me was how long Clay took to listen to the tapes. In the book he listened to all 13 in one night, but he seems to take forever to get through all of the tapes in the series. I think this is because Clay finds it hard to listen to the tapes due to how close he was with Hannah in the show. In the book however, Clay and Hannah weren’t really friends. They definitely knew each other through work and mutual friends, but they weren’t as friendly in the book as they were in the series. Most of the other changes were changes in the people that Hannah blamed for causing her to commit suicide. The most obvious change was the name of one of the characters. In the series, she is known as Sheri but named Jenny in the book. Everything else about her character is the same, but the writers for whatever reason decided to change the name of the character. Alex does not attempt suicide in the book, and there is no mention of Tyler planning a massacre either. Overall, both the book and the series were good. Personally, I liked the book better because there wasn’t as many plotlines going on which made it much easier to follow and comprehend. I think the writers for the series made the plot confusing by adding the lawsuit and changing some of the characters. Although I didn’t think there was any need for a second book to 13 Reasons Why, I think that because of all the changes that were made for the series that there might need to be a second season to wrap up some of the plotlines that weren’t summed up in the first season. I don’t even think a full season is necessary, maybe one or two extra episodes to show the outcome of the lawsuit, Alex’s suicide attempt, and whatever it is that Tyler has planned.