A Review of 'It's Kind of a Funny Story' by Ned Vizzini

"Ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner is determined to succeed at life-- which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job. But once Craig aces his way into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School, the pressure becomes unbearable. He stops eating and sleeping until, one night, he nearly kills himself.

Craig's suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety.

Ned Vizzini, who himself spent time in a psychiatric hospital, has created a remarkably moving tale about the sometimes unexpected road to happiness."

Ned Vizzini is one of my favorite authors! This is one of the first ones that I read before I dubbed him as one of my favorites.

This story really illustrates the pressures that go into a teenager's life today. I don't know what it's like to live in New York or what the school system is like, but for me, I equated Craig's trying to get into the best high school there is with my experience with preparing for college. He had to take these great big tests-- they're like the SATs or ACTs for college-- and then after that, keep up with that really great school that he got into.

Eventually, these things become too much for him and he becomes depressed... so depressed that he plans to jump off the bridge that he passes over every day.

What I thought was really remarkable was that he didn't give in to that feeling. As soon as he thought these things, he called the suicide hotline, where he was able to talk to someone. They told him that he could check himself into the emergency room for this. That's just what he did.

Vizzini's story is beautiful. It uses love, but it doesn't use it as the main driving force of the story. That's not the first thing Ned Vizzini uses to get the story going. It's really a breath of fresh air. There are no vampires, no really dramatic love epics... that's what makes this story great.

Because of these things, I give 'It's Kind of a Funny Story':

There's also another thing, and I'm kind of excited about it...

That's right, it's going to be a movie! I'm so darn excited for that too!

Thanks for reading!

--Jude