The Perks of Being a Wallflower

 

The Perks of Being A Wallflower

By Stephen Chbosky

Charlie is 15 and beginning his life in high school, so he decides to write an anonymous friend letters instead of keeping a diary because someone could always find a diary. Charlie is shy and keeps to himself but it doesn't take long for him to find his own group of friends. They are typical teenagers going to school, football games, and parties. They find their way to all sorts of alcohol and trendy drugs.

 

Charlie, Sam and Patrick are best friends and Charlie finds himself just a little bit in love with Sam, even if she told him that he was too young for her. He doesn't care he can't just help to love her. Charlie likes high school ok but the thing he likes the most is his English teacher, who said they were friends and Charlie could call him Bill. Every week Bill gives him a new book to read and write a report for that book. The books are as interesting as everything and Charlie learns so much from his books.

 

The year passes quickly and all the trials of being a teenager weigh Charlie down, his older friends are getting ready to leave and Charlie just isn't sure he can face each day without them. His whole world starts to fall apart and Charlie has to go away to pick up the pieces.

 

Review:

 

 

This is one of the best books I have ever read. The whole book takes place in 1991 and 1992 which I love because I was 14 in 1991, and Charlie and his friends could have been anyone that I knew. I think as adults we forget that as teenager we are living with all sorts of adult problems just try to cope and go day by day. I really love how the author caught the real essence of that in the creation of all the characters. I would quickly put this on a list of book that everybody should read by the time they are in their 20's.

 

 

I really got myself wrapped in the characters and really related with Charlie's grasp of not knowing what was happening to him when his mental illness took over. It is so frightening for a young adult to have such deep rooted problems and have no idea where it comes from, what it is and how to stop it. To say I love this book is putting it lightly, I hope anybody who gets the chance to read this will read and come away with the same uplifting experience as I did.