ALL SPOILERS BELOW:
I think you believe people act rational and reasonably in all situations regardless of their circumstances. I believe they do not.
Clay had no desire to listen to the tape and dreaded hearing his own. He was already in a depression not to be confused with being depressed prior to listening to the tapes. He had previously been on medication for his depression before Hannah killed herself. So he had a history of depression. He asks others because he wanted clarity without going through with all the tapes.
Lives ruined is very subjective. Many of them were trying to get scholarships to specific schools and thought that may be in jeopardy if the tapes became public. The person who would have been least impacted in my mind was Ryan, Zach, and then Alex maybe. Everyone else though had pretty clear reasons for not wanting the tapes out there. Marcus had been accused of sexual assault. Courtney would have been outed. Tyler was a stalker. Jessica would have had everyone including her parents asking about the rape. Justin also wanted to prevent that. Sherry caused an accident that took someone's life. In general, no one associated with the tapes wanted people thinking they contributed to Hannah's death.
I think you might not have paid much attention to specific scenes that dipicted Hannah's family life. The Parents didn't have any idea what was going on because Hannah didn't tell them. From what they knew she was happy, going to parties, hanging out with friends, going to poetry readings. Hannah didn't talk to them about her problems because she was a teenager and felt she was a burden to her parents who were already struggling financially. They weren't self absorbed either. They tried to be there for her in many situations. She was pretty clearly loved.
Yup, forget her grief, filing a lawsuit was stupid.
Your actions aren't the only things that define what happen to you.
I didn't read the books, but I do not of some of the differences. I think changing the order was a huge mistake.
Somehow you came to the conclusion that was the message it was sending, but I never got that impression. How come I didn't get the message? Could it be that you were projecting here?
She didn't treat Clay like crap. She was emotional with him, but certainly didn't treat him like crap. Be specific if you believe that. If anything I would say Clay said some much nastier things to her.
She was nasty with the Asian guy telling him she wasn't interested in him? Really?
Did she treat Jessica and Alex like crap? Alex put her on a list, and that list caused Jessica to slap her and call her a profanities. What exactly did she do to Jessica and Alex again?
Bad things happening? You make them sound like acts of nature. No, people did bad things to her... that's bullying...
How did they act unrealistically when they knocked down the stop sign? Sherry didn't want her parents to find out because they would think she was driving drunk. She panicked and left. Hannah did the right thing and tried to call the police. Which of these was unrealistic?
