It's Kind of a Funny Story (Caution MAY be a spolier alert)

     The book It’s kind of a funny story is a great book written by Ned Vizzini. The book is about a boy named Craig who is mentally depressed and suicidal. Craig is a freshman in high school and he is under a huge amount of stress. Craig used to be on anti-depressants, but then he stopped because he thought he was all better. But he wasn’t. One night, Craig was really serious about killing himself, he even thought of a plan. At three in the morning he was going to go to the Brooklyn bridge and jump off of it, but he started to freak out and instead he called suicide hotline and they told him to go to a hospital.

     I think Craig did the right thing by calling the suicide hotline. I bet it would be really, really hard to just stop in the middle of about to kill yourself and call someone. That is really intense stuff to just stop in the middle of doing. Craig is a smart kid, he knows what hes doing and I think he just had a really bad night and freaked out. I feel so bad for Craig, he is only 14 years old and he is immensely suicidal. The only people that know is his family and that must be a really hard thing to hide.

     Craig got the full treatment he needed at the hospital. They sent him to a mental unit in the hospital that helped him realize that he has his whole life ahead of him and he shouldn’t end it. Craig was suicidal the entire first part of the book, and what I think really triggered him to almost kill himself, are two very important things in his life. First, I think his family and friends really didn’t help him all that much even though they wanted to. They even made him more depressed without meaning too. Also, I think that Craig’s school also made him more suicidal, he had too much pressure on him.

     I think one of the reasons that Craig became more depressed was because of his friends and family. Of course they all love him very much and never meant to make things worse but they did. His family is always asking him how he is doing and they are always wondering if he needs something. This makes him feel like there is something wrong with him, like he is crazy and he should feel bad about himself. That is not going to help him in life. Also I think that his friends don’t realize it, but they don’t help much either. They don’t know that Craig is suicidal and they joke around with him a lot and act like friends should, and they are a little harsh on each other but in a loving way. But what they don’t realize is, that Craig probably doesn’t take it like that. He feels that his friends aren’t really serious about life. Also Craig’s best friend named Aaron is dating the girl he likes and that must be really hard. He has to watch them be in love with each other while he is just sort of there.

     The other thing that I think stressed Craig out is his school. Craig is a freshman and he lives in New York just like me. He has to take a specialized test to get into the high school that he wants to go to. So he starts studying really, really hard and he gets into that school. The only problem is, that it is a really high pressure school that stresses him out a lot and he has a lot of pressure to do well. I can relate to Craig, my school isn’t like that, but I am taking that same exact test and I know how hard it is. And if you get in, the school is really hard and stressful and it can’t help Craig at all. It will just make him more depresse
     It’s kind of a funny story is a really amazing book and since Craig is basically my age, I feel like I can really connect with him. Eventually in the end, everything gets sorted out and he isn’t depressed anymore. In this book I feel like I can really picture everything that happens. I can follow Craig’s life and know whats going on. I feel bad for Craig. How awful must it be to be going through such a rough patch in your life and only be in 9^th grade! I mean that is really intense stuff he is going through. Overall, Craig made the right choice to call that suicide hotline because otherwise, he would have died.