Review Detail

Reader reviewed by MssJos

This book has been on my "to read" list for over a year now. I'm not exactly sure how this book ended up on my list. I just kind of kept hearing about it so I guess I added it somewhere along the way. Normally, I don't enjoy books that consist only of letters written by the characters, journal entries, or things like that but this one is an exception to that rule. Actually, it's an exception to a lot of rules.

Charlie spends his entire freshmen year of high school writing letters to someone who's name he does not reveal to us. In these letters, Charlie describes his first experiences in high school--the loss of his friend to suicide, the eccentric new friends he makes, abusing alcohol, first drug use, and much, much more. Told by anyone else, this story wouldn't be quite as effective; but told from Charlie's intelligent, sensitive, and completely unassuming point of view, readers can feel his excitement, fear, and infinte-ness. (Yes, I realize this is not actually a word...just read the book).

Through his one-sided letters (and therapy), Charlie recalls some things about his past that help him figure out why he is the way he is. Devastating, heartbreaking, and intoxicating, Charlie's letters are simultaneously detailed and vague-keeping readers hanging on until the very end.

This books is hard to explain, and nearly impossible to critically review. Picture "That 70's Show" if Eric was deeply, emotionally disturbed and Hyde was gay. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of the most unique and intriguing YA novels I have read. It will definitely make you look at the quiet kids in class differently.

This isn't a book I would overtly recommend to students, but I do think young adults could benefit from it. I hope that when I become a teacher, I can be like Bill, the English teacher in the book who is always there for Charlie, and sees something special in him and let's him know it. Because sometimes you just need someone to say it out loud. Though Charlie is only sixteen, some of his insights are so advanced and enlightened, readers of all ages can appreciate them.

"I think if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won't tell them that people
are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn't change the fact
that they were upset. And even if someone else has it much worse, that doesn't
really change the fact that you have what you have. Good and Bad...Because it's okay to feel things. And be who you are about them." (p.212)

Charlie shows readers that life can be painful, beautiful, and terrifying all at once.