It's Kind of a Funny Story in Around the World in 80 Books

Jul 02, 2019 Te-ge Bramhall rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019-favs, young-adult, recommended-best-books

I asked recently, “If you could only recommend one book, what would it be?” This is one of the books that was recommended.

Being a teenager is hard. It’s always been hard, since we first singled teens out as a separate life stage. It was my least favorite period of my own life, and now that I have teenagers of my own, I see that there’s really nothing I can do to make this not an almost impossible stage to go through.

We ask children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and they answer, no I asked recently, “If you could only recommend one book, what would it be?” This is one of the books that was recommended.

Being a teenager is hard. It’s always been hard, since we first singled teens out as a separate life stage. It was my least favorite period of my own life, and now that I have teenagers of my own, I see that there’s really nothing I can do to make this not an almost impossible stage to go through.

We ask children, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” and they answer, not realizing that by the time they’re teens, they not only need to know what they want to do, but start taking steps to make it happen. So we thrust on teenagers, who until just a couple years ago, were children, the responsibility of deciding what the rest of their life is going to look like, while saying they’re too young to make “adult” decisions.

Want to get into a good college so you can get a good job and be able to support a family eventually? By the time you’re 15 or at the most, 16, you need to be taking steps to making that happen, because all your adult success hinges on the choices you make now.

It sounds laughable, right? But that’s what we tell teenagers…not in so many words, but in our actions and in our expectations. You have to take the PSAT and do well, and then either the SAT or ACT, and you have to have good grades, and you need to find after school activities that round out your resume.

It’s enough to drive someone to want to kill themselves.

And well, that’s the first part of this book. The second part, where the book went from “this is okay” to “Alright, I can see why this book was recommended and it’s really good.” starts when Craig Gilner tries to call a suicide helpline and finally (after the call gets routed to the right place), gets told to check himself into the hospital, which he does, and ends up spending 5 days on the psychiatric floor (with the adults because the teen floor is under renovations).

As Craig recovers in the hospital, the writing style in the book changes, and you begin to understand that the first section, with the two-dimensional characters, was more about how Craig himself was seeing the world. As he begins to feel better and to rediscover himself, the author’s writing style reflects this. Characters become well-rounded, and we come to know many of the other patients pretty well.

When Craig’s old friends come to visit, the difference is stark. Even the man who stays in bed all day has more depth to him than Nia, who has a checklist of goals that includes “wanting to do it in a hospital bed.”

I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll end the story here, but I will say that all in all, this is definitely one of my top reads this year. ...more

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May 13, 2014 alana rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-on-the-big-screen, romance, making-things, young-adult, addicted-to-ya-2014-books, depression, mental-health

It's Kind of a Funny Story was an Addicted to YA Book of the Month for 2014. I had seen there was a movie by the same name starring the kid from United States of Tara and the Hangover baby guy. As a movie, I hadn't been intrigued. However, the mappy cover of the book was appealing. I was pleasantly surprised by the story! In a sea of books that use mental illness for the purpose of introducing fantasy elements like parallel worlds and angels, Vizzini presents an honest (and still entertaining) e ...more

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