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It's Kind of a Funny Story (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up-When 15-year-old Craig Gilner is accepted by a prestigious Manhattan high school, the pressure becomes taxing, and he finds himself battling depression. Partying and drugs don't help. As his illness intensifies, he is aided by his supportive family and perceptive therapist. A prescription for Zoloft improves things, until Craig decides that he is better and stops taking it. In a revitalized state of depression, he calls a suicide-prevention hotline and then checks into a hospital, where the only space available is in the adult psychiatric wing. There, he receives the help he needs, discovers his hidden artistic talents, and connects with the quirky patients who have plenty of problems of their own, including Noelle, a girl his own age. Craig's well-paced narrative, carefully and insightfully detailing his confusing slide and his desperate efforts to get well, is filled with humor and pathos. His thoughts reveal a sensitive teen unsure about sex, friendships, himself, and his future. An almost unbelievable amount of self-realization, including his first two romantic encounters, occurs in the whirlwind five-day hospital stay. However, the book ends on a note of hope, despite Craig's unwise anticipation of a relationship with Noelle. This novel will appeal to readers drawn to Brent Runyon's The Burn Journals (Knopf, 2004), which is another powerful but more extreme look at a likable teen returning from the brink of suicide.-Diane P. Tuccillo, City of Mesa Library, AZ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


From Booklist

*Starred Review* Gr. 9-12. When Craig Gilner gets into Manhattan's exclusive Executive Pre-Professional High School, it's the culmination of a year of intense focus and grinding hard work. Now he has to actually attend the school with other equally high-performing students. Oops. And so the unraveling begins, with a depressed Craig spending more time smoking dope and throwing up than studying. Although medication helps his depression, he decides to stop taking it. Soon after, he makes another decision: to commit suicide. A call to a suicide hotline gets him into a psychiatric hospital, where he is finally able to face his demons. Readers must suspend their disbelief big time for this to work. Because the teen psych ward is undergoing renovations, Craig is put in with adults, which provides the narrative with an eccentric cast of characters rather than just similarly screwed-up teens. And in his five days in the hospital, Craig manages to cure his eating disorder, find a girlfriend, realize he wants to be an artist, and solve many of his co-residents' problems, including locating Egyptian music for his roommate, who won't get out of bed. What could he do if he wasn't depressed! But what's terrific about the book is Craig's voice--intimate, real, funny, ironic, and one kids will come closer to hear. Many readers will be familiar with the drugs, the sexual experimentation, the language, and, yes, the depression--or they'll know someone who is. This book offers hope in a package that readers will find enticing, and that's the gift it offers. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

  • Reading level: Young Adult
  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Miramax; First Edition. 1 in number line edition (April 3, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 078685197X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0786851973
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #86,721 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

More About the Author

Ned Vizzini
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

It's Kind of a Funny Story
83% buy the item featured on this page:
It's Kind of a Funny Story 4.3 out of 5 stars (39)
$8.99
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
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The Perks of Being a Wallflower 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,295)
$9.88
Teen Angst? Naaah . . . A Quasi-autobiography
3% buy
Teen Angst? Naaah . . . A Quasi-autobiography 4.5 out of 5 stars (32)
$6.50
Be More Chill
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Be More Chill 4.1 out of 5 stars (61)
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Customer Reviews

39 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (39 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A Memorable Novel On Clinical Depression Which Will Interest Adults Too, June 11, 2007
By John Kwok (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
When I moved back to New York City a decade ago, I was drawn immediately to the pages of the free alternative weekly "The New York Press". Why? Back then it had a terrific stable of eloquent columnists, ranging from Jonathan Ames and Melissa de la Cruz to fellow Brunonian Amy Sohn. But I thought the most remarkable person writing for them was a young high school student, Ned Vizzini, who would soon become a fellow alumnus of our prestigious New York City public high school, Stuyvesant High School, which is of course best known for its Nobel Prize-winning alumni, other distinguished scientists, doctors, engineers and lawyers, legendary Hollywood movie stars like James Cagney and Tim Robbins, and a certain former member of its faculty, one bestselling memoirist by the name of Frank McCourt. Although I haven't been following his subsequent career as diligently as I should, I was quite impressed back then with Vizzini's crisp, clear prose, and fine ear for clever dialogue. All of these are amply present in his latest novel for adolescent kids, "Its Kind Of A Funny Story", which I think will interest many adults too.

Vizzini offers an eloquent, memorable fictional description of teenage clinical depression in his latest novel; one which is the most honest, and truly - on occasion - humorous accounts I have come across. It is also one firmly rooted in reality, since he had suffered from clinical depression too, shortly before writing this novel. Craig Gilner is a new student at a prestigious New York City high school which is a fictionalized, business-oriented version of Stuyvesant. One night he begins thinking of suicide, and ultimately checks himself into the emergency room of his Brooklyn neighborhood hospital. It's the start of an engrossing - and as I have noted before, an occasionally hilarious - journey through the hospital's adult mental ward, where he soon encounters recovering drug addicts and people with multiple personality disorders. Craig does his best trying to retain his sanity while dealing with his fellow patients, the hospital's staff of superb doctors, nurses and other medical attendants, his family, and his small circle of high school buddies. You will find yourself smiling, perhaps laughing, as you read Craig's encounters, which will, of course, end on a triumphant note. Having established himself as one of our finest writers of adolescent fiction, I am truly looking forward to the time when Ned Vizzini joins the ranks of our best adult fiction writers too.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The best one yet..., July 6, 2006
I've read Ned Vizzini's two previous books, Teen Angst? Naaah... and Be More Chill, and they were both hilarious. It's Kind of a Funny Story is also funny (heh), occasionally to the point where I was laughing out loud. It also hits on a different level though, and Craig's recovery is one of the most life-affirming things I've ever read.

I can't say if this will apply to other people or not, but when Craig talks about his "Cycling" and the "Tentacles" it was one of those YES!!! moments. It was like "I know what this feels like", and it was just very nice to read about that, and to know that I'm not alone in having it.

If nothing else, read the book for the ending. While it's still directed towards Craig, it's also kind of a message for everyone who's ever battled against suicidal feelings.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, May 24, 2006
Ned Vizzini has a distinct advantage over other authors who write about teen depression, attempted suicide, and the ins and outs of psychiatry--as a teen he was clinically depressed and even spent time in a psychiatric hospital. That experience has allowed Mr. Vizzini to bring to life the kinds of situations that were once largely absent in teen fiction; that of the fact that not all teens are happy, spontaneous, happy-go-lucky youths.

For Craig Gilner, gaining acceptance into the elite Executive Pre-Professional High School in Manhattan is not the end of his problems, but only the beginning. All the studying, the cramming, the all-nighters he pulled to get high marks in his old high school and ace his entrance exam now seem mediocre, at best, at his new school. Craig realizes quite early on that he's not brilliant, he's not at the top of his class--he is, in fact, average. For a guy who worked as hard as Craig did, with such obsessive determination, this is a blow not just to his ego, but to his very soul.

Craig soon finds himself unable to eat, unable to sleep, unable to find joy in just about everything. As he realizes he's clinically depressed, he tells his shrink--excuse me, psychiatrist--that his only joy in life comes from peeing. Yes, peeing. You go in, you get it done, you accomplish what you set out to do, and you're finished. It's pretty sad that going to the bathroom seems to be the highlight of his day (he even manages to stretch each trip out to about five minutes), but it's also the truth.

Dr. Minerva, for $120/hour, is attempting to help Craig figure out exactly why he's depressed and how to overcome it. But Craig no longer thrives on a life of complexity; for him, life is a nightmare. And as his depression leads to thoughts of suicide, he's not even surprised to find that there's an 800 number he can call. And after taking the plunge and calling 1-800-SUICIDE Craig hikes over to the local emergency room at the hospital, where he meets Dr. Mahmoud (who is not a terrorist).

From there, Craig is checked into a psychiatric hospital, and he meets a motley crew of patients who, amazingly enough, become better friends to him than the ones he had before he went in ever were. For Craig, being in the hospital might just save not only his life, but his sanity and his will to keep on keeping on.

IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY is a great read. Filled with issues that plague a large number of teens today, the author has managed to take sensitive topics and deal with them in a humorous way that never seems disrespectful. A very enjoyable, thought-provoking read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Way too long
The author is a good writer, it's just that he seems to have fallen in love with his own writing. There's way too little action for a 400-plus page book. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Robert Guyette

5.0 out of 5 stars Its Kind of a Funny Story-- a page turner
Craig who is clinically depressed has problems sleeping and eating. When he lays down the cycling starts. Cycling is when all your thoughts come into mind at the same time. Read more
Published 20 days ago by M. Sheridan

1.0 out of 5 stars A horribly fake representation of teenage depression
I am a teenage boy who has depression, so sometimes I like to read stories about teens who are also struggling with this problem. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ian Jude Ferreiar

4.0 out of 5 stars It IS kind of a funny story
It was an amusing book. Craig's depression was very interesting and, dare I say, quirky. Though the book felt a little empty. Read more
Published 4 months ago by M. Kovka

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing story of a suicidal teen
It's a Kind of Funny Story grabs you in from the very start. Ned Vizzini's witty words make the story come to life and thrash you into the dramatic anxiety filled life of teenage... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Kingham's Kids

2.0 out of 5 stars Ehhh.
Well, it's better than his other book "Be More Chill".... but that still doesn't say much. Vizzini still has a loooooong way to go before he will write a quality book.
Published 8 months ago by Miranda Burnett

3.0 out of 5 stars Everyone keeps saying how real it was and I thought it was a far stretch
It wasn't a bad book and it wasn't a difficult read, but knowing depression and having 2 family members working in a mental health hospital it was hard to swallow at points. Read more
Published 10 months ago by A. Genter

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Awesome Awesome
This is the best book I have probably ever read. You can really connect with it even if you're not depressed/suicidal. It really gets to you. Read more
Published 12 months ago by M.

5.0 out of 5 stars Redemption Over Easy
Recipe for suicide: push yourself beyond your abilities, criticize your performance relentlessly, lust after your best friend's girlfriend, smoke pot and masturbate daily, fail to... Read more
Published 13 months ago by C.B. Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Kind of a Funny Story
I read this book for school and now this book is my favorite! You follow a teenager with all the pressure of growing up. Read more
Published 15 months ago

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