The Perks of Being a Wallflower — A Spoiler Free Review

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Book: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Author: Stephen Chbosky

Age Group: Young Adult/MTV

Genre: Drama, Romance, Comedy, Slice of Life

Rating: 4.5/5

Those of you who have seen The Perks of Being a Wallflower (further known as Wallflower) may be wondering… why did it take her so long to get through this? Well to put it simply it was quite a dense book! Although short in pages so much was going on and left to be said in between the lines. Unlike most books, where they spend 20-50 pages going over one day, this book spends about 1 and a half pages going over a whole day, and a lot happens in that single day. Wallflower is written with the concept of tip of the iceberg.

Wallflower is written as a series of letters from the protagonist, Charlie, to some unknown character who happened not too sleep with a person at a party that they could have. This is also someone who he feels listens and understands. Charlie writes to this person often, sometimes every day, sometimes once a week over the course of a full school year, in particular, his freshmen year of high school.

Charlie is the youngest of three siblings growing up in a seemingly normal family home. Problem is a lot of unfortunate things happened to Charlie growing up, including the death of his best friend from Middle School (you find this out on the second page so not a spoiler!). This means that Charlie starts high school with no friends and struggles to ‘participate’ in everyday life. Charlie is what you’d call a “wallflower”.

 

The novel deals with a lot of heavy issues as Charlie observes and is involved in a lot of hard topics. Not discluding suicide, drugs, sex, rape, and a host of other topics. Within the first 30 pages of the book it had already dealt with suicide, abusive relationships and rape. This book is not for the light hearted and I feel that people under the age of 13 would not understand. As a 23 year old I feel like I have quite a bit of perspective on it, but it was still hard at times to read through, nonetheless.

The book also deals with a lot of pop culture, music, books and the Rocky Horror Picture Show being just a few of the canopy topics. It also references a lot of the things that were occurring in the 90’s, so reader beware that you may not understand if you were born quite late after this generation. Below is one of Charlie’s Mixtapes song list:

 

Overall I found it to be a fantastic book. One of the best I have read in a long time. Here are some quotes and visuals to give you some ideas.

“We accept the love we think we deserve.”

—	Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (via feellng)

“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.”

—	Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (via introspectivepoet)

I finally want to make a note that there is a movie that is based around the book. Honestly, the movie wasn’t bad, but it leaves a lot out that would confuse the audience, as well as several parts of the plot are simplified and altered. But, it does star Emma Watson, Nina Dobrev, and Mae Whitman (three of my favorite female stars).

Enjoy two screenshots (amongst the others above).

As always all opinions and views noted above are my own. If you’re thinking about buying the book then check out other reviews.

Thank you for taking the time to read this,

~ Yoku