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.

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.

Reader reviewed by erica

A friend recommended this book to me a few months back and I finally got around to reading it. Ugh! What a disappointment.

My biggest beef with this book lies in the fact that the author tries too hard to be profound and wide-reaching instead of letting it be a simple story about high school existence. Within the first 50 pages, "Charlie," the main character, confronts suicide, abortion, homosexuality, abuse, rape, drugs, alcohol, death and depression. One of these alone might have stood up, but all together it's just a little too much. (Think: "Rent")

What's worse is that sometimes these things are the focus of just one chapter and don't ever come up again. Suicide is mentioned then dropped. Abortion is mentioned and dropped. Rape is mentioned then dropped. It's as if Chbosky had a checklist while he was writing this to make sure every conceivable issue made an appearance. Had the author focused a bit, it could have been a much better book.

I will concede there were a few "perks." The book had some funny moments and there were times I found Charle relatable. However, in the end I didn't feel like the book took me anywhere. It could have ended 50 pages later or fifty pages sooner and I woudn't not have been able to tell the difference.

If you want a book from the perspective of a messed up teenager read "The Catcher in the Rye." Personally I feel even that book is over rated, but at least it's more honest than this one.