The title of this book aptly describes the story therein. It IS kind of a funny story. Not laugh out loud funny, but quirky and cute, which are two adjectives I never would have thought of to describe a story about a kid who checks himself into a psychiatric ward for depression.

Craig's been stressing out ever since he made it into Executive Pre-Professional, an elite high school for the business-minded. To deal with the stress, he mostly hangs out with his friend Aaron and smokes pot. Slowly his worries (which he calls "Tentacles") get the best of him, and he begins seeing a therapist and starts taking Zoloft. One night, after many nights of not being able to sleep and not being able to eat without throwing up, Craig contemplates suicide and calls the Suicide Hotline for help. They tell him to go down to the emergency, so he does, and checks into 6 North, the adult psych ward (the teen ward is under construction). At the hospital, Craig meets a whole crew of fun characters and a girl named Noelle, who help him over the course of his week-long stay to get his life back on track.

This summary really doesn't describe the fun of reading this book. Craig describes his life with just enough quirky details to make it amusing. I love stories about psych wards and this was no exception. That being said, this wasn't the kind of psych ward story where the nurses are abusing the patients, or the patients are all angst-ridden and cutting themselves. They're just like, yeah, I cut my face up, so now I'm here. The patients aren't known by their diagnoses, either. There's no "schizophrenic patient," no "bipolar patient." They are people and they have good times and bad times. Craig essentially realizes that the more permanent fixtures of 6 North have much worse problems than he will ever have, and he learns that he needs to make some major changes in his life to make himself happy. I'm excited to see the movie adaptation of this book... I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

There is quite a lot of language, drug use, and some sexual situations in this book. Older high school students should be okay with it (I'd say 15 and up). Fans of The Perks of Being a Wallflower will probably enjoy this as well.

8/15/11 - A Note About the Movie
The movie didn't hold as much charm for me as the book. I would give the movie 3 stars. The movie focused a bit too much on the Zack Galifinakis character, when in the book time was spent on all the different patients equally. Half the book is spent on Craig's situation before checking into the hospital, only a few minutes of the movie deals with this. I was also sad to find that they had filmed the scene where Craig calls the Suicide Hotline but cut it out of the final film.