It's Kind of a Funny Story

The Tentacles are the evil tasks that invade my life. Like, for example, my American History class last week, which necessitated me writing a paper on the weapons of the Revolutionary War, which necessitated me traveling to the Metropolitan Museum to check out some of the old guns, which necessitated me getting in the subway, which necessitated me being away from my cell phone and e-mail for 45 minutes, which meant that I didn't get to respond to a mass email sent out by my teacher asking who needed extra credit, which meant other kids snapped up the extra credit, which meant I wasn't going to get a 98 in the class, which meant I wasn't anywhere close to a 98.6 average (body temperature, that's what you needed to get), which meant I wasn't going to get into a Good College, which meant I wasn't going to have a Good Job, which meant I wasn't going to have health insurance, which meant I'd have to pay tremendous amounts of money for the shrinks and drugs my brain needed, which meant I wasn't going to have enough money to pay for a Good Lifestyle, which meant I'd feel ashamed, which meant I'd get depressed, and that was the big one because I knew what that did to me: it made it so I wouldn't get out of bed, which led to the ultimate thing-homelessness. If you can't get out of bed for long enough, people come and take your bed away.

Ned Vizzini, author of Teen Angst? Naaah..., Be More Chill, and now this, It's Kind of a Funny Story, is only in his twenties, and that definitely contributes to the authenticity of the voice of his unique male characters. Funny Story's Craig Gilner is your average 15 year old boy: pressured by school and life in general, to the point that he becomes overly depressed and ponders suicide. Luckily he calls the Suicide Helpline before doing anything stupid, and they direct him to check himself into the hospital, where he spends 5 days in an adult psychiatric facility (because the teen ward is being renovated and is full). There he comes to terms with many issues, finds his inner talent as an artist, and meets a similarly conflicted girl named Noelle. On the day he is released he knows that he is not completely cured, but he does feel a change in himself: his brain doesn't want to think anymore, all of a sudden it wants to do. The story is loosely based on Vizzini's life; he spent a week in a an adult psychiatric facilty in 2004, and upon being released, wrote this book in under a month. Not only is it extremely well-written and insightful for such a young writer, but it is also an important book for teen boys and girls to read who are pressured by life. Hell, that's all of us, isn't it? Everyone should read this. It is reminiscient of other attempted suicide/ depression novels such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Catcher in the Rye, and even The Bell Jar, but the difference is this character is able to pull himself out of his downward slide, and hopefully this novel will do the same for any troubled teen reading it.