Book Review: It’s Kind of a Funny Story– Ned Vizzini

Rating: 7.4

I tend to hate young-adult novels. The prose is often lack-luster; the dialogue is clichéd; the characters are hollow. Ever since the Twilight “Saga” came around, more and more YA novels are being pushed out to young readers all over the world. That being said, it is quite easy to become cynical when reading YA.

I had a feeling that Vizzini’s second novel, It’s Kind of a Funny Story would be just that: a funny story. Something light-hearted with maybe one or two lines that I would love. However, Vizzini only impressed me.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story follows Craig, a suicidal fifteen-year-old living in Brooklyn, New York. After attempting to go out á la defenestration, he checks himself into a mental ward where he meets new friends and a potential girlfriend.

Yes, just from the sound of that, it’s groan-worthy. However, Vizzini did his homework. He wrote of the conditions of a mental ward so correctly and intricately, it was like he served time there himself–which, incidentally, he did. This is not your normal YA novel; it is filled with beautiful writing. The dialogue is never forced. Every character is so well fleshed out, it’s as if I could talk to them even after the pages stopped turning. He described the effects of clinical depression to a T. His description was thorough while not being flowery. Vizzini did a fantastic job writing this novel and will be looked at more closely in the future.

For an excerpt of It’s Kind of a Funny Story, please copy/paste the link: http://www.teenlibris.com/images/uploads/pdf/FunnyStory.pdf

Do Not Read This

Samuel Harrisson here.

Day 6,217

“The coldest weather hitherto. Heavy snow last night, everything snowed up, drifts 4-6’ deep in places, roads more or less impassable, so that there has been no traffic of any kind all day. Violent wind. In spite of all this the tap of the village pump is not frozen, though almost completely buried in snow this morning. Some days back after being thawed out with boiling water it was muffled in sacking, after which it has remained unfrozen.

5 eggs.”

So said George Orwell on January 29th, 1940. Instead of the amount of eggs sold, I will talk of the number of propane tanks I filled.

—

Really? You continued reading? Why? I told you not to read this blog. Oh well, if you must, read on.

I have read many blogs before, and seldom found any good ones. I include writing blogs as well. It seems kind of ironic, right? Writers having shitty blogs? Well it happens. A lot. It happens a lot. This is because writers could only say: “I wrote seven thousand words today… Yeah…” A writer -hell, even a raconteur- is boring in real life. We basically stumble around in our boxers all day, eating cocoa puffs and trying to think of the next great American Novel.

Reader, I am no different.

This is why I am telling you to turn away, to leave this blog and go read a book. And I am not talking about Kindle or any of those E-books. I am talking about stacks of paper with ink in certain caricatures that spell out words. Can you get that lovely, musty smell from an E-book? Can you scribble in the margins? Can you feel the paper as it slides over your fingertips? No. You cannot. So stay primitive, reader. Leave now.

Still with me? Really? Okay. Let me digress further then. I don’t like the idea of blogs or diaries or journals. Why? Well, let’s start with my life. Do I write about my life here? Why do that when I know my life? So you can read it? Let’s be honest, the only people that will read this blog are people that will know me. And these people, well, they’re just doing it out of support. I don’t need their support.

Did we digress far enough yet, reader? I don’t think so. Allow me:

I don’t like my writing. In fact, I abhor it. I know that I am better than the average my age, but I still have much farther to go. Like an ant taking his tenth step into the lawn, and looking to the porch ahead (though ants cannot see), I am nervous. Anxious. Sure, I am ten steps ahead of the other ants, but does that really matter when I have thousands of more steps to take? It’s daunting, really.

Yes, I do not like my writing. I think my prose is shitty and under-developed. My plot is pathetic, and my dialogue sounds as if an introvert wrote it. The stories and poems to follow will not be good, nor decent. Mostly, I will just rant. Either way, if someone does read this, I will tell you to get off of the computer and pick up a book. There are great authors out there to read, why read my diatribes and stories? No matter who you are, whether a professor or pupil, partier or introvert, you have better things to do with your time. I hope that this is the last sentence that you read.

28 propane tanks.