The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

"I feel infinite"

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Blurb taken from here:

Read the cult-favorite coming of age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory. Also a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a funny, touching, and haunting modern classic.

The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

A #1 New York Times best seller for more than a year, an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults (2000) and Best Book for Reluctant Readers (2000), and with millions of copies in print, this novel for teen readers (or “wallflowers” of more-advanced age) will make you laugh, cry, and perhaps feel nostalgic for those moments when you, too, tiptoed onto the dance floor of life.

***

I loved the flow of this book. The awkwardness of the main character. The almost surreal, third party outlook the MC had of his life. It made things easier and more entrapping. 

I am always slightly put off by books that surround sexual abuse or incest. It's why I didn't continue Game of Thrones after the first book. It isn't that these things do not need to be talked about or that the stories were not good, it's just that they get stuck in my mind and I try very hard to stay away from depressing or horrible things that stick like gum, for my own sanity. 

This ending was sort of like that for me. But everything leading up to it made the ending almost forgettable. I don't think that was the point necessarily, but I saw Charlie as someone's life who had value and emotion and significance, if only to those around him. He wasn't his ending in this book. It was just a part of him. I'm not sure that makes sense, but it's the best way I can put it together.

This is a cult favorite, and after reading it, I understand why. 

This is a quick and easy read. It'll get you emotional in a bunch of ways. It seems real and realistic. 

Sexual abuse is pretty glaring throughout this book, so if that triggers you, you may want to skip this one. 


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