The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Perks of Being a Wallflower is a strange mix of heartbreak, annoyance and tediousness. There were certain enjoyable parts of the novel, but the bad far outweighed the good in this case.

The novel follows Charlie, painfully shy, introspective, highly intelligent and socially awkward. He is a wallflower, watching on the outskirts while people live their lives. On the advice of his teacher, he starts putting himself in new situations, and what follows is one of the best years of his life. Charlie is introduced to a world of dating, music, drama, new friends; a world of sex, drugs, musicals and books. Charlie was content to life his life on the fringes, but now is the time for him to see what life is really all about.

Charlie was a average and elusive character. His frank discourse so often reminded me of a child, which evoked deep endearing feelings from me, at least at the beginning of the novel. The book is set from Charlie’s perspective and, considering how painfully awkward he is, the style of writing reflected that: it was astonishingly simple and the were sentences rigidly structured. It was always “This happened, and then this, and then this and now I am sad.” It is suggested that Charlies has some sort of disability, but it is never specified, so I understood the need for this particular style of writing in order to get into Charlie’s head.

It worked, at least for a while. And then it began to feel like reading this book was a chore, rather than a pleasure. The writing style grew dry very quickly and achieved the opposite desired effect. I could not connect with Charlie because I began to find him repetitive and artless. It is a shame, because I so very much wanted to like him.

Patrick and Sam felt greatly removed from the novel, despite them being Charlie’s best friends. They were present in scenes, but at the same time they were transparent characters. Sam was the clichéd next-door-neighbour type of girl that the protagonist can’t help but fall for, while Patrick was a stereotypical gay boy. They did not feel like fully-fleshed out characters, but rather like poor attempts at one. This greatly confused me, as I so enjoyed their characters in the companion film. Chbosky actually wrote the screenplay so I don’t understand how his characters could be so different. Perhaps this is also a testament to the elementary writing style.

The plot was, frankly, all over the place. I personally felt that there was a mix of too many issues and I think the book could have greatly profited from a narrow look at one or two of these issues, rather than a dozen. The result would have been a cleaner novel that would have allowed more people to emotionally connect to. It was almost like Chbosky sat down and wrote a list of all the things a stereotypical teenager from an American movie would do and included every single one of them in his novel. It was also incredibly awkward to read about these issues as Charlie, while fifteen years old, reminded me of a child.

Perhaps one of the reasons I did not enjoy this novel as much as I thought I would have was because I expected it to be exactly like the film. While the film was accurate with certain events and scenes, there were many new scenes that were included which positively affected the movie. Unfortunately, because I had watched the film, I also knew what the big reveal at the end of the novel was going to be and I was not as shocked or disturbed as I ought to have been.

Overall, I was disappointed in this novel. I expected a well-written coming-of-age novel about a socially awkward teen, but received a superficial look at teenagers and their issues instead. I can certainly see elements of a good novel in this book, and understand why many other people loved it, but I am just not part of that group.

This coming-of-age novel is written as a series of anonymous letters that fifteen-year-old high school Freshman Charlie writes to someone he has never meet but thinks will understand him. He addresses the letters as only as ‘Dear Friend’. The 53 letters span a period from August 1991 to August 1992.

When the novel opens Charlie is dealing with the suicide of his middle school friend Michael the year before and the death of his favourite aunt Helen, during his early childhood. Charlie befriends Patrick, an openly gay teen from his shop class, and his step sister Sam. Both are older, outsiders – but they are the cool kind of outsiders. They introduce Charlie to parties, drugs and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The novel tackles some tough issues through Charlie’s eyes including suicide, domestic violence, sexual abuse, rape, teen pregnancy, abortion, drug use, homosexuality, death of a family member, mental health.

Stephen Chbosky also wrote and directed the feature film adaptation that was released in 2012 and starred Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller.

Since joining the book blogging community I’ve heard endless and amazing things about The Perks of Being a Wallflower and with the movie release finally upon us, the compliments just keep on coming.

Chbosky deals with real, impending teen issues such as sexuality, drugs abuse, suicide and teen pregnancy, just to name a few, and though he handled them reasonably well, I just felt that he was trying to cram too much into the book. The short sentences were annoying and resulted in a choppy reading experience but that wasn’t even my main problem.

I could not for the life of me, connect with our protagonist, Charlie. He grated on my nerves, plain and simple. At one point in the story, Charlie’s English teacher tells him he's the smartest person he's ever known and though Charlie has an interesting, very pure way of looking at things and seeing the world, I didn’t agree. For a supposedly super smart 15 year old, his letters were filled with the simplest language possible. There’s also the fact that he felt far too innocent for his age. Altogether, his character and voice just seemed unrealistic.

There were some really beautiful passages and quotes and I love how it got me thinking about things such as my first memory. In fact, I couldn’t wait to get back to it and read more. But Charlie? He irritated me to the extremes. But then *insert sound effects* DUN DUN DUN. I don’t why but after such a long time struggling, things with Charlie started to improve at about the half-way mark. Now, don’t go jumping to conclusions, Charlie and I aren’t friends but we’ve finally come to some sort of an understanding; a truce (or maybe it was just due to the fact that he started to grow on me?).

Despite my problem with Charlie, I liked The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I’m even looking forward to the movie, especially since the trailer looks so awesome; whether I see it in the cinemas or wait for it come out on DVD, I’ll definitely give it a watch.

From the beginning, I was hooked. I fell in love with Charlie and all of the other characters. One of the main reasons I loved the book was the format. I love the fact that we not only get to know things about Charlie's life, but we also get to see his opinions of them and how he reacts. I don't think I've ever felt so much for a character before meeting Charlie. It's an amazing book about high school and life.

I just could not stop reading the book. There were parts where I felt so distressed because of the book, but other times when it just made me feel really happy inside. I cannot recommend this book enough. GO READ IT.

I really like this book. My friend told us we should read it and after a few days, a lot of our friends started to read it too. It was something we all talked bout when we all finished reading it.

So I love this book, but I kinda dislike it in some ways. Charlie broke my heart throughout this entire book. He seemed so naive. It's more than a coming of age story, it's also a deep book about relationships, family, and abuse. And also secrets.

I love this book. Loved Charlie. Such a likeable character that I found I had a great connection to. It was a simple read. Teenagers trying to survive the pressures of school, relationships, love, hormones and the concept of entering adulthood. Really captures the enssence of kidulthood. I look forward to reading it again someday.

Reader reviewed by bono

This book was good but if you had to chose between this and another book i think you might have to pick the other unless that other book is a piece of poop. This book follows a guy his name in the book is "Charlie."Hes a very confused kid that goes through alot in his first year of high school. He drinks he Smokes and is having encounters with women and his friend patrick, who yes is a guy. This book captures alot of what people feel during there first year in high school. Curious as can be he does alot of things we usually don't do but can only dream of doing. This book is a wrap of emotions and events that blow you away and the ending is a shocker! I would totally recommened this to any one...... if you have time.

Reader reviewed by Courtney

The Perks of Being a Wallflower was an excellent book. It was relatable and simple which made it really easy to read. I found myself wanting to see what would come next. It showed the concerns and struggles of being a teenager, such as fitting in and having friends. Instead of there being chapters, there was a series of letters written by the main character showing his experience. I really liked how you were able to see into the character's mind and see what he was thinking, how he was feeling during the instance that he is writing about. It was entertaining because you could see the events actually happening in life, it made it easy to visualize what it would be like in that situation. It was a short book and wouldn't be too time consuming to read. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in reading it.

Reader reviewed by Ariana

Perks of Being a Wallflower is a story about the harsh truth of injustice and the problems some high school students face every waking moment of their life.  I recommend anyone of mature age to read this book.  It is very thought provoking, and in some cases it could be life changing.  It tells of the ups and downs of a 15-year-old boys life and all the struggles he wrestles with in his process of discovering who he really is.  It is an easy read and written in the form of diary entries from Charlie, the main character.  It truly brings you inside of his thoughts and emotions, which makes the book almost impossible to put down because it is a very powerful read.

In its simplistically written form, this story has both the surprisingly complex plot and deep emotions of very well-written book.  I applaud Stephen Chbosky for his ability to create a story that makes you laugh, cry, and think about what really matters in life within the few pages he has put together.  This is a story that gives the reader a different look at things, or in some cases, a connection with the main character.  I truly recommend this book to all mature readers.  It is a great story.