Note: This isn't the review the book truly deserves. 
 Adolescence IS kind of a funny story. The writer, Ned Vizzini constantly maintains this message in his writing. 
 It's Kind of a Funny Story perfectly and explicitly depicts the modern teen life. It's based on real events and characters so that provides it with a sort of realism. 
 The writing and the sarcastic tone gives Craig a lovely, intriguing, captivating voice that one would relate to- in good way. 
 The only thing stopping me from giving it 5 stars is the unnecessary love triangle that the writer added. One of Craig's stress sources is his 'crush' for a girl but he excluded it for a while until he could pick himself up. But the writer ruined that for me when Craig dated a girl right in the middle of the book to show that he's continuing life. I find that it contradicts 'that he should find happiness from within first'. 
 That's the ONLY flaw I found in the book. There are so many beautiful elements in this book that I have failed to write. 
 This isn't a self-help book. It's more of an observation. It's an insightful and poignant look at teen depression. Most of its art is in the depiction and story-telling and conversations. The end showed that Craig "ruled out suicide" and is on his way to "getting better" as stated by the writer afterwards but he's still "not cured". Frankly, if it did offer a solution, I would have disliked it because -as written in the book- "Life can't be cured, it's managed" 
 All and all, IKOAFS is a story that we all relate to because it's the transition from a kid to a young adult to a fully-grown adult, because it's the 'crisis' that we all have to go through before growing up.