Ambitious New York City teenager Craig Gilner is determined to succeed at life—which means getting into the right high school to get into the right college to get the right job. But once Craig aces his way into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School, the pressure becomes unbearable. He stops eating and sleeping until, one night, he nearly kills himself. Craig's suicidal episode gets him checked into a mental hospital, where his new neighbors include a transsexual sex addict, a girl who has scarred her own face with scissors, and the self-elected President Armelio. There, Craig is finally able to confront the sources of his anxiety. Ned Vizzini, who himself spent time in a psychiatric hospital, has created a remarkably moving tale about the sometimes unexpected road to happiness.
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“Craig’s voice—intimate, real, funny, ironic, [is] one kids will come closer to hear. Many readers will be familiar with the drugs, the sexual experimentation, the language, and, yes, the depression—or they’ll know someone who is. This book offers hope in a package that readers will find enticing, and that’s the gift it offers.”
— Booklist (starred review)
“Vizzini has penned a poignant and sometimes humorous tale about navigating adolescence. Narrator Robert Fass matches Craig’s desolate moods and factual nature very well.”
— School Library Journal (audio review)This book offers hope in a package that [listeners] will find enticing, and that's the gift it offers.
— Booklist Starred ReviewBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Ned Vizzini (1981–2013) began writing for New York Press at the age of fifteen. At nineteen, he had his first book published, Teen Angst? Naaah…. His book Be More Chill was the first young adult novel ever chosen as a Today Show Book Club pick, as well as one of Entertainment Weekly’s Top Ten Books for 2004.
Robert Fass is a veteran actor and twice winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. He has earned multiple Earphones Awards and been named in AudioFile magazine’s list of the year’s best narrations for six years.