It's Kind of A S*ttty Review

By April W.

It's Kind of A Funny Story is a coming of age novel following main character Craig Gilner as he tries to balance his life. Craig Gilner is a deeply depressed fifteen year old boy who is struggling with all aspects of his life. The story is loosely based off of the author, Ned Vizzini, who spent some time in an adult psychiatric hospital.

Craig Gilner used to be just like any other teenager. But after getting accepted to an upscale, prestigious high school, he soon realizes he is in over his head. He falls behind in school work and begins to smoke pot with his best friend, Aaron, while also coveting him for dating his crush, Nia. Craig has names for all the issues he stumbles upon; "tentacles" are his responsibilities, "the shift" is the move back to a normal life. He also hears a drill-sergeant like voice in his head that dictates him to perform normal human functions, like eat, breathe, and sleep. Eventually the stress builds up too much for Craig, and he attempts to take his life off the Brooklyn Bridge. He calls a suicide hotline and they steer him to an emergency room, where he will spend the next five days in the adult wing.

I enjoyed this book because Craig was so well-developed and you could really feel for him as the story continued and couldn't help but to root for him to find his way in the world. The way that Vizzini wrote the book was all from Craig's point of view, so you really got a look into his head and how his mind worked and it was very interesting to be in that mindset. I think all the characters were well developed, and the dialogue was well written because it was realistic. It was awkward to read their dialogue at some points but I believe those feelings are hard to make a reader feel, so I would give this book a big thumbs up.

I do believe that if you're a depressed teenager, this book will probably be enjoyable for you. There's something reassuring about reading about other people being sad, because then it feels like you're not going crazy, everybody has rough patches time to time. But anyone else could definitely read this book and have a grand old time. This book made me feel a rainbow of emotions: happy, sad, uncomfortable, anxious. But it did have me smiling at some parts so I think I will wrap this up by saying while this is a very sad book, it's also kind of a funny story.