It's Kind of a Funny Story

So I posted yesterday about how I had just picked up a new book, It's Kind of a Funny Story. And then I finished it at 3 am last night. I have mixed things to say about it.

Obviously it captured my attention because I finished it in two days... but it was also incredibly easy reading and had a very large font. It's quite clear to me that this book is meant for young teens, probably those who have struggled with stress or depression because it's all about a young boy who gets into a very difficult high school and then finds that it's too much for him and ends up clinically depressed. It wasn't that it was a bad book, just that it was a little below my reading maturity level.

It had some amusing parts to it and for the most part I enjoyed reading it, but I was bummed that there was pretty minimal character development and really not a whole lot of a plot line either. The climax of the book seemed just a little too high-school-drama for me. I do understand that it was based on the author's own experiences though and is supposed to send a message of hope and life, which was evident at the end. Kind of. It was no Rent, though.

Another thing was that I kept looking for the zach galifianakis character that is shown a lot in the trailer. There were a couple people that could possibly be him but no one in particular and that was a disappointment. It also gives me the feeling that the movie version is going to add in a whole lot of plot that was absent from the book. It's rare that I think this, but I'm pretty sure the movie is going to be better than the book.

[Ok, I just watched the trailer again before I put it on this post and now I know who Zach G is supposed to be. He's playing a character named Bobby, which I suspected as I read the book- but instead of Bobby being one of numerous secondary characters, they actually make him an important character in the movie. I wish the book had done that.]

That said, this is not a bad book. It's just definitely more appropriate for early teenagers who are just beginning to deal with real problems, become interested in the opposite sex, and figure out who they really are. If I read this when I was 14, I bet I would have loved it. And I still enjoyed it now, just not as much as I wanted to.

Oh, and the author threw in this 2- page weird almost-sex scene in the last 30 pages of the book that was kind of like a "wait... wtf?" moment, but I forgive because I think he's a young author and somewhat inexperienced in writing novels.

Anyways, I give this book a rating of 3 stars and an overall "meh". I wouldn't recommend it to any of my friends, but I would probably recommend it to a bunch of 9th graders.

Here's the trailer for the movie, which I now want to see even more (to see how those crafty film-makers make it better!)