Jay Asher’s bestselling YA novel, Thirteen Reasons Why, follows a boy named Clay through an emotional night after he receives a box of cassette tapes from his classmate, Hannah, who recently committed suicide. Though the book was published in 2007, it has continued to touch teens (and adults!), and helped open up a national conversation about bullying and teen suicide. Over the past year, Asher has embarked on a 50 States Against Bullying tour, speaking at a school in every single state to spread awareness of bullying and talk about how to stop it.

In the midst of his whirlwind tour, EW talked to Asher about how Hannah’s suicide could have been prevented, why teens find his characters so relatable, and why we need to open up about issues like suicide and bullying, no matter how uncomfortable they might seem.