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C.G. Drews's Reviews > It's Kind of a Funny Story
It's Kind of a Funny Story
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by
C.G. Drews's review
bookshelves: contemporary, read-2014, young-adult, mental-illness, ya-without-romance, ya-male-narrators
May 01, 2014
bookshelves: contemporary, read-2014, young-adult, mental-illness, ya-without-romance, ya-male-narrators
I liked this book a lot, but it left me kind of unsatisfied. And it was slow. Which I'm not overly fond of.
What I absolutely adored about it, though, is that it talked about depression not being the result of childhood trauma. Craig spent so much of the book telling himself there was no need to be depressed. He was making it up. He was being ridiculous. It was internal argument after argument, which basically boils down to his telling himself he was worthless. THIS IS TRUE. That is how it is to have depression and that's how it is to have no reason for depression. There is nothing to blame it on, so are you just making it up? The book was so much of the truth I wanted to hug it. Absolutely spot-on in that respect.
But it didn't resolve. I realise, that's life. Life doesn't resolve. Life while never give you all the answers for you to work in a systematic way. But I found the book unsatisfying because it only resolved (view spoiler) but not whether that would fix everything or not. Usually depression is a management thing. Not curable.
Also, it was slow and a little wordy. I was a bit frustrated because it took aaaages to move forward. The writing was a tad on the wordy side too, with long paragraphs. But it was very intimate in Craig's thought-process. I felt really engrossed the whole time.
But I did like the book! In fact, I loved it, and it's been one of the few books that (I think) have dealt admirable with clinical depression. I'd recommend it in a heartbeat. And it also didn't glamorise it, you know? It told you the facts, made you see exactly what it's like and Craig was the best narrator. It didn't say that going to the hospital was Craig's cure-all. And it also opened the fact that most people suffer with things like these. (Craig's friends did, but got help, others didn't.) You don't have to be embarrassed about having depression, and I think that's a really important message for a YA book to bring across.
What I absolutely adored about it, though, is that it talked about depression not being the result of childhood trauma. Craig spent so much of the book telling himself there was no need to be depressed. He was making it up. He was being ridiculous. It was internal argument after argument, which basically boils down to his telling himself he was worthless. THIS IS TRUE. That is how it is to have depression and that's how it is to have no reason for depression. There is nothing to blame it on, so are you just making it up? The book was so much of the truth I wanted to hug it. Absolutely spot-on in that respect.
But it didn't resolve. I realise, that's life. Life doesn't resolve. Life while never give you all the answers for you to work in a systematic way. But I found the book unsatisfying because it only resolved (view spoiler) but not whether that would fix everything or not. Usually depression is a management thing. Not curable.
Also, it was slow and a little wordy. I was a bit frustrated because it took aaaages to move forward. The writing was a tad on the wordy side too, with long paragraphs. But it was very intimate in Craig's thought-process. I felt really engrossed the whole time.
But I did like the book! In fact, I loved it, and it's been one of the few books that (I think) have dealt admirable with clinical depression. I'd recommend it in a heartbeat. And it also didn't glamorise it, you know? It told you the facts, made you see exactly what it's like and Craig was the best narrator. It didn't say that going to the hospital was Craig's cure-all. And it also opened the fact that most people suffer with things like these. (Craig's friends did, but got help, others didn't.) You don't have to be embarrassed about having depression, and I think that's a really important message for a YA book to bring across.
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Reading Progress
May 1, 2014
– Shelved
May 1, 2014
– Shelved as:
to-read
July 16, 2014
–
Started Reading
July 17, 2014
– Shelved as:
contemporary
July 17, 2014
– Shelved as:
read-2014
July 17, 2014
– Shelved as:
young-adult
July 17, 2014
–
Finished Reading
May 18, 2015
– Shelved as:
mental-illness
June 28, 2016
– Shelved as:
ya-without-romance
November 17, 2016
– Shelved as:
ya-male-narrators
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by
Kate
(new)
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rated it 4 stars
Jul 18, 2014 08:45AM
Hey, my thoughts exactly! :) It took me a while to get into it, but once he was admitted and met all the psych patients it got more interesting. But it makes it even more tragic to read now that you know a few years after he wrote this story about dealing with depression, he committed suicide.
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I had trouble telling Bobby/Humble/Jimmy apart though. :| But did the author actually commit suicide? Oh my gosh...I had no idea. That's awful.
Yeah, the story was 85% autobiographical, and just last year he committed suicide. That's what made the ending so heartbreaking for me, because the end was hopeful, otherwise!
I knew he wrote it off his experiences in a psychiatric ward, but still...omg, I'm a bit shattered. Have you seen the movie? It wasn't the best, but it was still good. Hopeful <-- perfect word to describe the book/movie.
I just watched this movie a couple of weeks ago! I didn't even realize it was a book so it's cool to hear your point of view about it. Wow, I didn't know that about the author... tragic.
The artwork was soooo good in the movie! I didn't really visualise what he was doing in the book (which is basically the front cover, hehe, duh moment to me xD) but the movie's was brilliant!
