Perks of Being a Wallflower

SPOILERS… again!! Please read the book before you read the spoilers! The spoilers aren't extreme... but still. Read the book first :)

I cannot say enough about this book. Stephen Chbosky wrote a book that hit every emotion and heartstring in my entire being. This book is a short read, but man it hits hard. It brought on emotional tears, hysterical laughter and grasping for each new page. To start out, the book is written in a very different format; the ‘chapters’ are really letters that Charlie, the main character, writes to himself. He titles each letter, “Dear Friend” but never states who he is writing to directly. It’s almost like a diary that Chbosky writes out on the pages. 

Charlie is an incoming freshman and is a bit nervous. He’s more of a timid individual that has a few demons in his past. His family life seems stable, but has a lot of lies and built up aggression in the cracks. His siblings and him have quite interesting and slightly distant relationships, along with his parents. He is closer with his mom then he is his dad, but neither seem to be a close emotional attachment for Charlie. Even though his family wasn’t always emotionally there for him, Charlie hangs out with two seniors, Patrick and Sam, when he gets to school. Their friendship formed in a very natural way of Charlie just sitting down and talking to them on his own; and poof! Friendship. While I absolutely LOVE Sam and Patrick’s characters, they expose Charlie to drinking, smoking and sexual activities. No matter what, at some point in everyone’s lives, they learn about/try out these things. While I didn’t necessarily love how Charlie went about doing these things, Patrick and Sam were great friends to him. They were daring and outgoing, but most of all they were loving to Charlie. Even when Charlie admits his desires for Sam, she doesn’t shun him or push him away; rather she tells him to embrace the love he has for her into someone that can truly love him back. They accepted him and did not care who he was or what he looked like. All they cared about was having a good time. 

I seemed to find a way to relate to Charlie throughout this novel, even if his situation wasn’t exactly the same as mine. Charlie is introverted and very book smart. I am not introverted at all, but I’d like to think of myself as smart… sometimes. He was a big reader, and well, so am I. But he was a bit quirky. He thinks about how others see him quite often. He wonders about people more than he wonders about himself. I think this is why Charlie had such a hard time conceptualizing his Aunt’s death. That is one of the bigger underlining plots in the novel. Charlie’s ‘favorite’ Aunt died when he was young and he missed her immensely. But, once he came to find out who he was and really dig into his past, he realized that his Aunt wasn’t all that she was cracked up to be. 

Charlie brings up a lot of emotionally painful realizations in his letters. He sees and talks about abuse, drugs and death. None of which are easy topics to handle if they are personal. With that being said, Chbosky writes about those things in a very delicate yet straightforward manner. Charlie doesn’t tip toe around the topics in his letters; he says it as it is. Overall, the rollercoaster that is Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of the most heartfelt, overwhelming and yet calming novels I have ever read. I recommend it to anyone who wants to relate to the characters or even someone who wants to read an eyeopening novel. 

Lastly, this book was filled with such amazing quotes. So here are a few of my favorite:

“Maybe if my grandfather didn’t hit her, my mom wouldn’t be so quiet. And maybe she wouldn’t have married my dad because he doesn’t hit. And maybe I would never have been born. But I’m very glad to have been born, So I don’t know what to say about it all especially since my mom seems happy with her life, and I don't know what else there is to want.” (210) 

“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 feel infinite.” 

“And Sam and Patrick looked at me like I said the greatest thing they ever heard. Because the song was that great and because we all really paid attention to it. Five minutes of a lifetime were truly spent, and we felt young in a good way.” (33)