The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Charlie is an outsider, a typical wallflower. He gets bullied at school and prefers taking the forty minute walk home instead of the school bus. Charlie is sixteen years old and when he starts high school, his life is going to change forever.
In a series of letters written by Charlie and sent to an anonymous person we learn about his life, his new friends, his family and especially Charlie himself. He writes about school and his English teacher, Bill, who gives Charlie extra books to read. Charlie then writes essays about them. He would like to become a writer some day.
Charlie himself is a mystery. He has mental problems, gets angry, sees things and then passes out. Right before he started high school his best friend shot himself, but there is also another, worse reason for his problems. At school Charlie meets Patrick and Sam, both of whom are outsiders too, just cooler ones. Patrick is gay and before his stepsister Sam introduced him to "good" music, he was a popular kid. They introduce Charlie to all kinds of new things. Parties, drugs and rock music become new parts of Charlie's life and for the first time he knows what it really means to have good friends.
What makes this book so special and authentic is its reality. As an adult it takes you back to when you were a teenager, as a child it shows you what lies ahead and as a teenager it inspires you. And as we all know there is no other time when finding out who you are and where you belong to is more immediate than when you are a teenager.
4 comments:
I completely agree and what you've said about The Perks being all about reality. I loved this book. But I can totally understand why it was just an average read for you. I read somewhere that Charlie was abused by his aunt... And I think it's true, especially when I went back to the book to check it. Also, I really liked how his English professor told him he was special... I loved that moment! Lovely review, K! :)
Sarika @ The Readdicts
Thanks Sarika @ The Readaddicts for taking time and reading my review.
i am definitely going to re read this book again some time soon..!
a lot my friends adores this book. but not me. so i'am going to give it another chance.!
may be we can read it to-gather in our read along ..!!
Bye!! take care.
Hmm, this book really disappointed me. I had heard such good things about it but I couldn't make out anything special about it. Glad you liked it better than I did.
It did't disappointed me, but neither it made me happy.!! I actually liked the format. It was a cool idea, and it seemed like something a freshman would do.Firstly i gave this book 2 stars out of 5. then i thought that i am being harsh and everyDAMN person who read it,loved it. so i gave it 3 stars.
i am thinking of re-reading it, maybe i have missed something!!
thanks for you comments Pragya!!
Post a Comment