The Perks Of Reading About A Wallflower (The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky)

Member Name: Nickycool

Product:	The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky
Date:	27/03/08 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting, entertaining

Disadvantages: If you don't like first person book or don't like journey books

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I bought The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky because of Facebook. Strange yes, I know but on Facebook, there's application called Visual Bookself. It lets you see all the books that your friends have read and what is popular at the moment. I was on the hunt for a different kind of book as I just wanted to broaden my horizons. I saw this book recommend a few times so I went to look on Amazon.co.uk on how much it was. It was £5.49. Not too bad and with lots of Amazon vouchers left, I thought why not.


...The Story...

The story is all about Charlie growing up. Charlie is a freshman at school and whilst he's not in with the popular crowd, he's not really a geek. The only way you can describe him as, is a wallflower. He's shy, really reflective and very intelligent. Like any high school kid, he struggles with making friends, family problems, relationships, drugs, depression and many more. On top of that, he has to deal with his best friends' suicide. At a football game where he's trying to fit in more and get into the school spirit of things, he meets Samantha and Patrick who are seniors and brother and sister. He embarks on many adventures with them and faces many highs and lows.

...My thoughts...
The story is written in the form of letters. In a way, it's more written like a journal but there are some moment where he speaks to the unknown correspondent. The book could have been called 'Charlie's journey' because in a sense that was it is. Following Charlie through the school year, learning things as he learns them. Though, you don't get a description of Charlie, you get to know him and how he is through his thoughts and words.

As the book continues, you learn that there is much more under the surface to Charlie than an ordinary freshman. He has depression due to his Aunt Helen dying in an accident and in a way, he thinks it's his fault. Also the suicide of his best friend probably added to that depression. Even if you never were in the situations that Charlie finds himself in, I think it's written in a way that makes you understand. Some moments of the book are very sad and I nearly cried in a few places. The way it's written makes elements very emotional and touching as the author nearly puts you in Charlie's shoes for a moment and then puts you back to being the reader of the letters.

You could compare the book to Jack Kerouac's book 'On the Road' and J.D. Salinger's book 'Catcher in The Rye'. It has the same feel to it. It's similar in its storytelling and also follows a person on a journey. I think I would have appreciated this book more if I was 16 again and the same age when I read 'On the Road'. For me now, this book is looking back on similar situations and things that happened in my teenage years. If I would have read this book years ago, then I would have seen it with different eyes. It might even have helped me, who knows.

Again, I was slightly disappointed with the end as it doesn't tell you who Charlie was actually writing to. I guess some authors like to keep you guessing even when the book has finished.
I'd recommend this book to people that like real life situations or read books about people who are on a journey. I wouldn't recommend it to anybody under the age of about 13 years as some of the language is inappropriate and it talks about taking drugs and suicide.

Summary: A teenage life on view