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Its been 10 years sinceThirteenReasons Whyfirst hit bookshelvesand became thelife-saving bestsellerits known as.
A lot has changed in the time since.
Credit: Beth Dubber/Netflix
I understand why they have to do that.
But if you had a favorite character and now theyve been melded together with another one, its disappointing.
The second they proposed the series it was a way to completely go around that problem.
Beth Dubber/Netflix
You dont have to condense.
In fact, you’re free to expand.
As the series developed I was excited for the fans.
Theyre going to get the same 13 reasons and the same characters, but also bonus content.
Youre getting more storylines involving extra characters.
You get to see the characters interact more than in the book.
I was so confident in the people that made it.
Thats evident in the first episode.
You hear so many lines directly from the book and you realize thesearethe characters from the book.
Youve lived with Clay and Hannah in your head for so long.
In the book, it follows him.
He gets the tapes and he listens to all of them by the next morning.
You only see 24 hours of his character arc.
You definitely see a side of him that you just dont get to see in the book.
It still feels so real to me.
As a guy who wrote the character originally, that was the really fun part for me.
It started out my character and then we get to see him beyond the book in a way.
That was really exciting.
I felt like I was allowed to be lazy and still have my story continue.
It was the same thing with the other characters.
It still felt like my characters, which is what absolutely impressed me the most.
There are lines that arent in the book that felt like I could have written that.
If I were to write it today, it would be a little different.
It felt like this is the right way to spread this.
Its also just visually much more compelling.
There was a lot of talk of keeping this feel.
Kids are picking up the book even now and becoming fans.
Ive actually stayed in contact with a lot of them, which has been weird.
When the book came out they wrote me something that very much touched me.
Whether its we became friends on MySpace back then and then you just periodically see them online.
As they become adults and you see them go to college.
Some of them now married.
Some I do keep up with.
They feel like a part of it as well.
Do they re-read it?
Do they recommend to other people?A lot of people re-read the book.
As an author, I love to know my book sells really well.
I think youre really opening yourself up as being a safe person to come to.
Same thing when I hear about a parent reading the book with their child and then discussing it.
Over the years thats been a really great thing.
The parents are a bigger part.
Even more adults are going to watch it.
And the adults on the show were saying that.Even if its just, Has that ever happened?
Its a weird thing to just bring up out of the blue.
Now you’re able to point at something fictional and say, Has that ever happened to you?
It makes it so easy to have conversations.
Im excited about that.
The producers and I have talked a lot about that over the years.
Theyve had conversations with teens about the book over the years.
I read in an interview that you were really anxious as you were writing this book.
Honestly, the weird thing was that was my first published book.
It definitely wasnt the first book I wrote.
Everything I tried to sell before that was humorous.
I thought I was going to be known for my humor.
But then I had an idea for a story, which was absolutely not humorous.
But, of course,thatsthe one that sells and becomes big.
[But] then everybodys expecting the same thing, which is not where my mind naturally goes.
I have three other books that are all very different.
Or tackle another hard-to-talk-about subject.Yeah.
I love that people ask that question.
Are there any other topics or serious issues that youd love to address?
Let the issues be there naturally.
Or the book would have sounded preachy.
You were going to get a lot more interactions between Clay and the other characters.
Some of the themes I had developed actually somewhat made it into the show, which is really odd.
I wanted to keep it basically just the two of them.
Thats where the book is written exactly how it needs to be.
The TV show is its own thing, even though it absolutely honors the book.
Thirteen Reasons Why(the book) is available for purchase.Order it here.
13 Reasons Whyis streaming on Netflix now.
