The Perks of Being a Wallflower

My rating

5 / 5

Self-Purchased copy

Author

Stephen Chbosky

Publisher

Simon & Schuster

Genre

YA fiction (contemporary)

Number of Pages

213

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Summary

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the story of Charlie growing up during his first year at high school. It is written in the form of letters to a friend or maybe the Reader.

Teenage years according to the author are years of first dates, new friends, family drama, discovering sex and drugs and so much more.

My Review

And this coming-of-age classic captures all that gloriously. It portrays the confusion and the beauty of the teenage years wonderfully. Charlie as the main character and narrator is adorable and an extremely sensitive and emotional guy. But I found myself resonating more with Sam.

Her no-nonsense attitude and very kind and friendly nature were extremely humbling. I loved the incident when Charlie was stoned and wanted a milkshake, and Sam was the only one who took him to the kitchen and made one for him and spoke to him kindly.

Charlie’s diary works like a mirror, where you see your thoughts reflected in Charlie’s writing, and you think, yes, this is what I would be doing or saying. It brings Charlie’s struggle to accommodate in his new environment very openly to the readers. He wants to “participate” and his journey very clearly shows us that life moves on, there are realities in the world outside of our own, and we need to learn to cope with them.

A thank-you to the author for this particular format of writing (epistolary) because I don’t think without it the story would have felt so personal and hard-hitting.

The most important takeaway from the book - Despite everything, Charlie made it. So will you. Do not give up.

An extremely philosophical, eye-opening, and entertaining read that will not leave your memory very easily.

Warning – themes of depression, mental illness, loneliness, rape, suicide.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower Book review

Stephen Chbosky

Stephen Chbosky grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the University of Southern California's Filmic Writing Program. His first film, The Four Corners of Nowhere, premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival and went on to win Best Narrative Feature honors at the Chicago Underground Film Festival.

He is the recipient of the Abraham Polonsky Screenwriting Award for his screenplay Everything Divided as well as a participant in the Sundance Institute's filmmakers' lab for his current project, Fingernails and Smooth Skin. Chbosky lives in New York.

- Top Quotes from The Perks of Being a Wallflower -

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”

“So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.”

“Things change. And friends leave. Life doesn't stop for anybody.”

“And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.”

“There's nothing like deep breaths after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore stomach for the right reasons.”

“I would die for you. But I won't live for you.”

“So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.”

“I think that 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 somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have.”

“I am very interested and fascinated how everyone loves each other, but no one really likes each other.”

“It's just that I don't want to be somebody's crush. If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am. And I don't want them to carry it around inside. I want them to show me, so I can feel it too.”

“It's strange because sometimes, I read a book, and I think I am the people in the book.”

“I don’t know if you’ve ever felt like that. That you wanted to sleep for a thousand years. Or just not exist. Or just not be aware that you do exist. Or something like that. I think wanting that is very morbid, but I want it when I get like this. That’s why I’m trying not to think. I just want it all to stop spinning.”

“This moment will just be another story someday.”

“Enjoy it. Because it's happening.”

“He's a wallflower. You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.”