I enjoyed how Craig was a very matter-of-fact person. He was responsible and logical, even if that logic got taken to the extreme due to his mental illness. As a former super-stressed-high-school-student, how he thought about his assignments and how things seemed to lead to more stressful obligations was something I recognized from my own thoughts. His moment of over analyzation at the house party was also very relatable to me. However, both were taken to a level I’ve never been to and with additions I’ve never experienced, such as Craig’s difficulty keeping food down.

As much as I enjoyed our main kid, Craig, this was really a story driven by the supporting characters. There was this lovely juxtaposition between the other patients and Craig’s classmates. As annoying as they were, my favorite part of the book was the response from Craig’s classmates. These kids understood the sentiment of being super stressed, but they were blind to the difference between “I’m sad” and “I want to die”. To me, it illustrated how dumb neruotypical people sound when trying to empathize with mentally ill folks. Whereas Craig fellow patients felt more grounded, even if they were supposed to be unhinged, and helped Craig reflect better on his own issues than perhaps the medical staff did.

The stoy’s dual timeline was a little confusing, though I’m not sure as much of Craig’s history could have been included had the story been told chronologically. I suppose you could also understand it as trying to reflect Craig’s mental state to the reader, but I’m not entirely convinced of that. This book served as a useful aid in destigmatizing reaching out for help, but also as a handy example of what NOT to do if you’re the friend in this situation. Funny enough to be light hearted and serious enough to be profound, It’s Kind of a Funny Story was kind of a good story.