Wow. This book isn't to be read so much as experienced. It vividly depicts the world of a bipolar teenager with depth and understanding. The story is ugly and honest, beautiful and sad, uplifting and overwhelming--pick an adjective, I'm sure it fits here. Just a thoroughly compelling read.While the author and narrator share the same name, the book bills itself as a novel, yet lacks the usual disclaimer about "any resemblance to actual persons," so of course you as reader will spend much of your time wondering what is truth and what fantasia. None of that matters, though. Every word feels real as though it could be you or me or anyone seeing life through these strange, troubled eyes.Dialogue is limited in this book, so at times it reads either like a straight biography or a particularly dense short story. Even so, at no time did I ever want to put the book down. That's not an easy thing to say for any book not in one of the usual pop-fiction categories. It's just that interesting. I can't recommend it enough.