The novel opens with 15-year-old Jeff waking up and finding himself in the hospital. He is in the psychiatric ward, where he must stay for the next 45 days, because his parents found him after he tried to commit suicide by slitting his wrists. The hope is that the stay will allow him to be stabilized enough to go home.

Jeff is a fun and snarky character, who brings the reader into the setting with fresh eyes. The novel is written in the form of a journal, where each chapter is a daily entry in which he shares the important facts of one of the days he is staying in the ward. Forty-five days and 45 days chapters.

The ward holds 5 patients at a time, and Jeff gets to meet a number of different fellow patients as they come and go. Each is there for their own reasons and they range from attempted suicide and depression to eating disorders to drug addiction. The staff in the ward seem to be friendly and helpful, but like most teens, Jeff seems more than happy to try to keep his distance. With that said, he also forms some strong friendships with some of his fellow patients.

Throughout the course of the book, Jeff slowly starts to reveal the details that led to his suicide attempt. It takes him that long to be ready to talk about it in his journal and with his psychologist, Dr. Katzrupus (whom he calls "Cat Poop"). His developing relationships with his ward-mates allow him to get a better understanding of his reasons and allows him to finally confront the issue head on.

Fort he reader, the reasons are not a complete surprise since some of Jeff's actions and thoughts have foreshadowed things, but the results for both Jeff and those around him are realistic and honest.

What I thought was important was that while Jeff is able to make a breakthrough as a result of his stay in the psychiatric ward, it is clear that it is just a beginning of a long-term healing process. Many similar books in young adult literature seem to make it feel like such stays solve all of the problems for the main character. This is a nice addition to the genre.