The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I bought this book immediately after seeing the trailer for the upcoming movie. I had wanted to read this book for a while, but I could never get my hands on it. Luckily, my mom has a Nook. From the minute that I bought the book until 2:40am, I didn't put the book down. I became a bit obsessed.

In The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, the narrator, going by the nome de plum "Charlie", writes a series of letters to an anonymous person recounting his first year of high school. Charlie is shy and bookish, his only true friend, Michael, committed suicide the year before. He's a little lost in the world. He is taken under the wings of two seniors, Patrick and his stepsister, Sam. These two introduce Charlie to new people, drag him to new events and get him to participate in his life again. Charlie learns a lot about friends, love and just about everything our parents don't want us to get involved with. He discovers the perks of being on the outside, but also the advantages of being a part of a group of amazing friends.

I wanted to read this book because I am a bit of a wallflower and a story about an outsider? Sign me up! And I was pulled into this story because I could understand Charlie's emotions. The moments when he felt completely alone because his friends were out of town or going to college were moments that I knew well. Of course, there were other things that I couldn't relate to, such as the large amount of drugs that Charlie and his friends do, but that didn't change the root of the story. A teenager, lost, scared for his first year of high school and completely friendless, finds a place for himself amidst the drama of the teenage life. It's a story that I know very well because it is my story. I was that teenager my freshman year of high school, looking for my place in the cafeteria. It was my friends' story as well. In this book, it's shown that it's not just Charlie who is looking for his place. It's everyone. His brother, off to college on a football scholarship; his sister, getting ready to leave the comfort of her high school to go to college; Brad, the high school quarterback who is struggling with his sexuality; Mary Elizabeth, trying to find the right guy; Patrick, trying to stay afloat after losing the one he loved and Sam, the girl of Charlie's dreams who just wants someone to fight for her and prove how much she means to them. This book is for those people who are struggling to stay afloat, trying to find something to hang on to. This book is a reminder that we are all lost, but if we reach out to one another, we can survive.

The plot of the book was spot on, exactly what I was hoping for. The only downfall, that I saw, of the entire book was the author's word choice. The book is supposed to be written by a high school freshman and I understand that, but after reading books with such beautiful word choice and elegant syntax, this book's writing fell a bit flat. It took me a while to see past that, but once I did, I was able to enjoy this book immensely. If you're starting high school or college or anything new and you're feeling a bit lost and lonely, pick up this book. It's a good reminder that what we are feeling is normal and that things could be a lot worse.