Title: Perks of Being a WallflowerMy friend Kirby has been telling me about this book for years. Though it's a young adult novel, she said adults enjoy it too and that it is really funny. I've tried to check it out from the library several times and it's always on a wait list...that means it must be good. So I finally caved and bought it on my Kindle.
You meet the main character, Charlie, a high school freshman, through the letters he writes to an undisclosed "friend." Each letter chronicles his life and his feelings about growing up.
I got sucked into the story right away because in the first letter, Charlie talks about his best friend who recently committed suicide and how he doesn't understand. From there the letters continue to touch on the struggles many teens face including depression, how to make friends, experimenting with drugs, relationships and deciding what to do after high school.
"So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons," Charlie writes in a letter. "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."
Charlie's story gets interesting when he makes friends with two outgoing seniors who take this wallflower off the wall to experience things he's only observed- love, music and the power of friendship. Along the way Charlie discovers more about himself then he ever did when he was just observing.
What I liked about the book was the honesty of Charlie's thoughts as he observes the world around him, tries to fit issues and people into black and white molds, only to find there's varying shades of grey in between.
"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," he writes.
His honest, almost ironic, tone is both endearing and funny in parts, making you very invested in Charlie's character by the end of the book. The only down side is the book is so introspective and moody, sometimes you just need to take a break from all the thinking and feeling.
Overall, I enjoyed the read, but it's not one I would read over and over again. Sometimes it was just too grim for me. However, Charlie is a character I will never forget.
Book Rating: 4 out of 5: I recommend it!
No comments:
Post a Comment