Forgive me, I saw the movie before I read the book. In my defense, I only knew about the book after I saw the movie. Anyway, this book details the life of a 15-year-old high school student who spends 5 days in a hospital after contemplating suicide. Suffering from mental illness and disability myself, the movie, book, and story in general gave me a lot of hope that things would improve. The language used by the late Ned Vizzini relates very well to a teenage audience. One of the only problems with this book is that it is INCREDIBLY formulaic. The whole boy-meets-girl boy-loses-girl boy-gets-girl story gets put into affect along with losing and regaining friendship. I don't really understand what the true meaning behind this story is, it's not really clear, but I presume it's meant as a bildungsroman of sorts. Overall, great story that motivates the audience, but it lacks a true moral.
