The Phoenix review

I first read 13 reasons why when I was around 15 in 2013, before the infamous, eponymous show on Netlfix. The show (first airing on Netlfix in 2017 when I was around 17), follows the story of a teenage girl, Hannah Baker, also 17, who takes her own life, only to live on posthumously through a series of cassette tapes explaining to her classmates how she was hurt by their unsuspecting actions. As a result, many critics and audience members have called out the show as one which promotes a dangerous and vindictive message about suicide. In light of this, it is in fact quite hard to talk about the book, without mentioning it's counterpart web-series. One has to wonder if the book that preceded it had provided the original 'script' so to speak on what was later developed into an inappropriate message about suicide. Point being: Does Jay Asher's novel, 13 reasons why, also promote a bad message? The context behind 13 reasons why is that it was based on the author's niec...

"Be a filter not a sponge." This is what Bill advises Charlie Kelmeckis in the Perks of being a Wallflower upon giving him a copy of Ayn Rand's "Fountainhead" to read. When I first read the Perks of being a wallflower aged 15, "Fountainhead" was a foreign book to me, and I had to wonder what Charlie's English teacher had meant. For a long time I assumed 'The Fountain' head was full of expletives and other obscenities. That was until I read Naked lunch, a book Bill had warmly advised Charlie to read, that was full of sex, bad language and much more. What was it then, that was so obscene to Bill, that he had to warn Charlie not to absorb it? I realised once I read it exactly what Bill was talking about. The fountainhead was one of the first books I ever read that I naturally 'filtered.' I didn't do it on purpose, in fact I completely forgot what was said about 'The fountainhead' in the perks of being a wallflower until ...