It's kind of a funny story, and it's very much a relatable one (IKFS book review)

It’s Kind of a Funny Story is a refreshing take on the life of a young person.  Refreshing might be a strange word to use to describe a book about a kid contemplating suicide, but let me explain myself:

YA authors too often love to challenge their teenage protagonists with larger-than-life, spectacular, world-altering problems.  We’ve seen popular YA protagonists fighting corrupt governments and/or taking down horribly evil adults and/or saving the world from certain doom. It's easy to forget that realistically speaking, the lives of young adults aren’t always full of adventure or incredibly spectacular…and there’s nothing wrong with that.  Sometimes, the biggest problem a young adult has to tackle is just how to make it through the next day.

This is the problem that faces Craig.  He’s not trying to overthrow the government or kill Voldemort or save the world—he’s just trying to survive.

Of course, we see Craig struggle with the idea that he has somehow failed at the most basic human function (living).  Craig wonders why he is the way he is when there are people out there who are facing much more dire circumstances than he is.  He feels unworthy of his suffering.  We see this harmful attitude when he begins to spiral after his principal calls him: he thinks to himself,  “I don’t have any disease.  Depression isn’t a disease.  It’s a pretext for being a prima donna.  Everybody knows that” (302).  Of course, this isn’t the truth—this is what Craig’s depression wants him to think.  Importantly, we see throughout the novel that Craig comes to understand that his depression is a valid struggle and that struggles come in all different forms.  Everyone is facing their own struggles—some are worse than others, but everyone’s individual struggle is real and everyone deserves to get help for their struggles, including Craig.  This is the lesson he learns throughout the novel, and it’s an important one.  

By reading this book, perhaps young adult readers will recognize that their struggles are valid too.  Moreover, they don’t deserve to suffer in silence just because they are depressed and ‘it could be worse’.  Craig is relatable because he is speaking of the very human tendency to feel like you are not enough—not smart enough for school, not cool enough for your friends, not attractive enough for your crush or hard-working enough for your parents or disciplined enough for your work.  In Craig’s case,  feeling like he is not enough drove him to what he viewed as the best solution, a choice that only someone so crushed by feelings of inadequacy—of being not enough—would consider as an option: just putting an end to all of it, all of the expectations that his circumstances have placed upon him and that he has internalized.  But, as we see Craig come to learn throughout the book, it is not up to anyone else to decide whether you are enough; this is something you can decide for yourself.  Craig realizes this when he considers the option of leaving his school (and by extension, his friends and the crushing environment which was causing him to feel so inadequate): he decides, at once, that he has had enough of feeling like he isn’t good enough for his school and his friends.

I think that Craig also extends this kindness to himself—this decision to be enough for himself—because he sees himself within his psychiatric floormates.  We see that Craig meets (most of) his floormates where they are and he takes them as they are, and this is something that Craig couldn’t do for himself and his own struggle with depression.  But now he has met others like him, he’s come to understand that everyone deserves to be enough—because often, we are told we are not enough due to things that are beyond our control (such as our mental health conditions, dis/abilities, sexualities, identities, etc).  

 Craig knows he isn’t “better” by the end of the book, but he knows that his struggle doesn’t define him—he knows he is indeed enough, regardless of external pressures put upon him or his mental health diagnosis.   This book does an important job of legitimizing depression for young people as a real thing that happens, and while it is indeed a hard thing to grapple with, it is also something that there are resources to handle it and manage it.  You can survive and thrive as a person with a diagnosis.  The theme of hope is prevalent on the last page of the novel, where we know that Craig has accepted his struggle with his depression as a part of how he will have to navigate the world.  This acceptance is what allows Craig to actually go through his “shift”: he knows he struggles with depression, and he knows there are steps he can take to thrive as a person with a diagnosis.  We see him taking incredible steps to surround himself with things and people that will help him to stay anchored.  

He started taking his medication again because he realized he has a chemical imbalance—a medical issue.  You wouldn’t leave an open wound to bleed indefinitely and hope it gets better and blame yourself when it doesn’t—so why do we think about mental health this way?

His high school was a huge trigger for his depression; when he recognized this, he took its power away by changing schools.  His friends were causing his depression to worsen, so he realized how vital it was to set healthy boundaries with them—he recognized that they were people with struggles too but that he needed to prioritize his own mental health.     One of my favorite quotes of the entire book comes from Craig learning to set that boundary for himself with Aaron: “He’s been demoted from most important friend to friend, and he’s going to have to earn that, even.  And you know what else?  I don’t owe people anything, and I don’t have to talk to them any more than I feel I need to” (396).  Of course, this doesn’t mean Craig is going to be a friendless recluse—we see how well he gets along with the people on his floor and with Noelle.  These are people who are ‘filling his cup,’ so to speak—they have a positive impact on him.  His other group of friends, Ronny and Aaron and Nia, were emptying his cup.  They were impacting him negatively.  Understanding who and what in our lives impacts us negatively is a vital step toward improving our mental health outcomes, because we become aware of where (and into whom)  we want to pour our energy. Energy is a precious resource for those living with a depression diagnosis and it’s a powerful thing to reclaim as much of that energy as possible from things and people that don’t serve your goals.  Craig is a wonderful example of becoming aware of his energy, how it is being drained, and what he wants to invest it in.  

I have plenty of criticisms for the book as well (some of which might lessen its impact for certain youth, such as LGBTQIA youth—it might even harm them instead of helping them—but no piece of literature is black and white, and considerations should be taken surrounding the conversations we have about books like It’s Kind of a Funny Story within environments like the classroom in order to maximize their benefit to readers and acknowledge their shortcomings).  There isn’t a book quite like this one out there and it serves an important purpose.  

Craig takes concrete, practical measures to find a way to manage his intensely relatable experience as an individual with depression.  This novel is refreshing because it presents a very real issue that many young people face and gives a realistic and hopeful perspective about it.  My hope is that teen readers encountering this novel would take from it a sense of security and to recognize their own ability to reach out for help.  Be like Craig, young people.  That’s my hope.