Book Review: The Perks of Being A Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

The Perks of Being A Wallflower, or Perks as I like to call it, is an emotional coming of age story based around the life of Charlie. At 15 years old he is about to start high school and experience all its perils. Without spoiling the story we share with him the excitement of meeting new people, new loves and new adventures whilst struggling with the death of his Aunt with whom he was very close.

As the story goes on Charlie matures and changes as he integrates into school life, and although the scene was normal and representative of the typical American high school (well, what I imagine it would be like) the lack of setting and context made the characters slightly flat. Perhaps this was a deliberate literary technique made by Chbosky. He may have wanted to show that this story and characters could be anywhere and anyone. That we might all know a Charlie that needs help and guidance.

The only thing that had me cringing in this book was the description of people’s emotions. There was a lot of crying, and it was described as just crying. Hard crying, soft crying, silent crying etc. The lack of description when it came to emotion made the feelings seem false, and perhaps this was deliberate again, but it made it unbelievable and hard to feel sympathy towards the crying characters. Which was nearly everyone in the book.

At the end of the book this ambiguity of the characters made the final few pages a real thought provoker. Making the readers think about themselves in a way that they may have not done so before. It is emotional and heart-warming at the same time and personally made me re-evaluate the way I want to think about the world.

I thoroughly recommend this book, especially for teenagers of a certain age struggling with the challenges of being…well a teenager.

It has you thinking well after you have turned the final page.    

I loved this book, and am extremely excited to see the movie adaption with one of my favourite actor’s in it. Ezra Miller. After reading the book I can definitely imagine him playing Patrick and doing a great job. Stephen Chbosky himself, who has also written the screenplay, is actually directing it. It is sure to be a big success and I hope it inspires a lot more people to read the book.

Star Rating: *****

The Perks of Being A Wallflower movie trailer.

Coming to Cinemas 5th October 2012 (UK)