Perks Of Being A Wallflower

The perks of being a wallflower by Stephen chbosky is amalgamation of genres namely YA fiction, Epistolary, Bildungsroman. I loved this book , like seriously loved it. This novel revolves around a 15 year old boy name Charlie who writes letters to an anonymous person throughout the book discussing about his day to day experiences. The letters are honest and he thinks that the person whom he is sending the letters will understand his situation without getting possessive. He is very shy and soft hearted boy with some unconventional thinking capabilities that's why his English teacher always gives him extra work to do because he is well aware of his capabilities. The book opens with the letter which mentions the suicide of his middle school friend and the death of the most favorite person in his life Aunt Helen who met with a car accident which keeps haunting him again and again. Further he become friends with 2 seniors Sam and Patrick, with whom he got indulge in smoking and drinking. Also, he get to know about the relationship of his sister with an abusive boy and come to know about her pregnancy. He starts enjoying the company of Sam and fell in love with her and when he dares to kiss the most beautiful girl in the room he kissed Sam. After which there relation of being friends is kind of torn apart. Later everything gets sorted. In the end every senior he knows including his sister starts preparing for prom and the graduation ceremony, post that he ends up being hospitalized. He writes his last letter with the feelings of hope, releasing from the hospital, forgiving his aunt Helen, making new friends, and trying his best not to be a wallflower. I really cannot express how much I love this book. In the beginning I was bit confused about the content and format as it was the first Epistolary novel I've read, but later on I started loving this book because it is emotional and wonderful at the same time. When I read the book the feeling at the end was totally different from when i started and in the end I had an ear to ear smile. Author did a great job in describing the characters, besides protagonist every other character was very well described. I loved the character of Charlie the most because being sensitive and extraordinary at the same time is not an easy job to do. The way he understands every persons situation was really appreciable. Character of Sam was also very good. Overall this is the most decent fiction novel I've ever read and is must read for everyone who needs a break from the regular projects.

It is my favourite book and movie. Everytime I read it or see the move, I just feel so good and positive and wish I would also be able to feel this kind of deep love and friendship. This book is worth a 100 times it's price. Worth every minute and every page of it's read. I expect to get similar books like this from the the same or other authors in the future.

Just got it!! Excited to read it😍 but one of the page is teared up except that everything is good!!

Damn, this book was amazing. And it's not one of those books where you figure out how amazing it is at the beginning, or even through the first half. It slowly creeps up on you. Or at least is slowly crept up on me. And the more I read, the more I loved it. And now that I've read it, I can safely say that this book definitely will go on a list of my favorite books ever. And another thing I should mention is that I've been avoiding this book for a while. One of the reasons was because I thought it was over-hyped (silly me). But then, finally, we had to read this book for University, and I'm so glad that the professor choose this book. It was the first book which I had to read, that I absolutely loved. And I haven't seen the movie, so I didn't know anything about the plot. And I'm glad that that was the case. The Perks of Being A Wallflower is a coming-of-age story. But it is also so much more than that. It is a story about a boy named Charlie who just started high school. Because he felt alone and scared, he started writing letters to... well to whoever is reading this book. At the beginning, I didn't quite like Charlie as a character. He cried way too much, and was a bit weird. But as the book went, I started liking him more and more. I also stared understanding him, and actually relating to him. Also, I liked most of the other characters (some more, some less). Yeah, they all had some flaws, and they all did some things which I sometimes didn't understand why, but we all act like that sometimes. One more thing that I absolutely loved was the friendship between Charlie, Sam and Patrick. I really wish I had a friendship like they did, in my own high school. It would certainly made things easier. I also loved that this book felt so nostalgic. Even though I finished high school not that long ago, it still brought me back to days when I just started school. And I loved that it did. So many times I've read a quote that described perfectly how I felt back then (or sometimes even now), which I couldn't find words to describe. But Charlie described it perfectly. Now, I should probably stop here and end this review, before I get too emotional. So in conclusion, I loved this book, and I can't say how much I'm glad that I've finally read it. And I'm sure that I'll re-read it many times in the future.

I feel, More than a real lot, a book gives you a hell of an experience, and this experience was an unforgettable, lovely, memorable and what not one, once I started reading this one, I couldn't stop turning pages and couldn't skip a single word and never felt not into it. The narrator here is a kid, and he writes letters to someone he knows but doesn't reveals about himself to him. Whole book is all letters that he wrote to him about all that was happening in his life and what he thought and perhaps learned from it. Hence, the narration was supposed to be childish, naive, and cute and then had to portray the emotions too at the same time. "I have to stop writing now because I am too sad." This was so cute. And funny. And sad. And exact. So many feelings at the same time. "I didn't feel like reading that night, so I went downstairs and watched a half-hour long commercial that advertised an exercise machine. They kept flashing a 1-800 number, so I called it. The woman who picked up the other end of the phone was named Michelle. And I told Michelle that I was a kid and did not need an exercise machine, but I hoped she was having a good night." This thing made me laugh so hard and I had to go to my friend who lives in the next room to share it because I felt like I had to share it with someone close. If you have the context, you will feel that this thing has a strange hint of loneliness and sadness and maybe morbidity. And this book is full of such things and you will fall in love with it for that. This book also involved things about perspectives in life, and just like everything else, I loved them like one here, "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 was crying and laughing at the same time.

I am so glad to have come across this book. Movie cannot do justice to the fun I had reading this book. A must read!!

If you are an introvert who has a lot of interest in observing human behaviour, yet you never want to come to the limelight, then this book is something that you will truly enjoy and resonate with. It also reflects C-PTSD in a comprehensive way.

This novel, an epistolary, is the story of a boy named Charlie who is a wallflower and hence lives a sad and secluded life. The book warns the reader of the one secret that keeps Charlie the way he is. It's strong at points with the questions Charlie raises and makes you actually think. The way the author has written the whole story seems to advance the story at the perfect pace - neither too rushed nor too slow. Furthermore, one finds themselves delving deeper into the story and their surroundings growing calmer as Charlie speaks to them. Also, it's not much of a book that'll keep you hooked (with cliffhangers and stuff) but you'll find yourself reading it at times to pass time and greet Charlie as an old friend. I first reached the end through the movie which honestly, lightens you up with a willful smile. Thus, there are perks of reading this book. If you just want to know the story, go for the movie instead which is definitely worth a watch.

It's better than the movies to be honest.

Para quem quer treinar o ingles intermediario é uma ótima leitura, recomendo!

Reread after a long time. The story of Charlie stays timeless and hope-instilling ever after. Funny, dark, emotional, sad, it has it all. Love always!

Of course I loved the book. It's so much more than "young-adult combing-of-age". For me, it was deeply moving, an often gripping story, particularly at the end, and it opened a window not just into teenagers, but into life at all stages -- this while being extremely well-written and without calling attention to its well-written-ness. What I found most striking, was showing life through a different kind of mind, what's sometimes called Asperger's Syndrome or High-Functioning Autism. AS/HFA isn't a disease, but an important difference, important to us all. What makes AS/HFA an important difference is its talents, particularly its special "perceptiveness", though not "perceptiveness" in the usual sense. More as a deep meaning to what Robert Burns wrote, "And would some power, the Gods give us, To see ourselves as others see us!" (Know this book deals directly with many painful topics including abuse, suicide and violent bullying. It's not for "more sensitive" readers.) Reading several reviews, I'm not surprised that some reviewers found the lead character, Charlie, "too sweet" and "improbable". In this, understandably, they miss Charlie's "diffferent" mind and more, his "different" way of being. I'm a psychotherapist, specializing for several decades in people for whom therapy has failed, often people, like Charlie, who've been hospitalized. And a dozen years ago, I discovered that maybe a quarter of my clients were in the autism spectrum, almost always AS/HFA -- often highly intelligent and able to relate to the neurotypically-structured social world, though relating "differently" and needing much more conscious struggling with the basics. After working several years with AS/HFA, I found these people had remarkable powers, and the usual "unable to relate or care" descritpion of autism just wasn't true in the ordinary sense. Most were neither uninterested nor uncaring -- in fact, quite the opposite. They desperately wanted to relate and, in some ways, they were over-caring, extremely sensitive to others. They related differently, not only to others, but to themselves and their world and, in particular, to language. Often not badly, but just very differently. Writing in first person gives the author no place to hide. You MUST have an extremely interesting character, and you MUST know that character with ruthless clarity. Chbosky does, and he does so well that I suspect he may have a touch of autism himself. Or at least it runs in his family. Disclosure: after several years working with AS/HFA children, teens and adults, I noticed that I was unusually drawn to them; I could almost use that diagnostically. With that awareness, I figured out that autism runs in my family. And with that, the disease faded away and the differences began to shine through. Let me note a few points from "The Perks" to illustrate. Charlie's speech, thinking and relating, at first blush, seems to be almost child-like, more charcteristic of six years old than sixteen. He has an astonishing honesty, a naive not-understanding, and his use of words frequently has that unintended poetic feel of children. But look more carefully: Yes, there are situations he doesn't get in ways shocking for a middle-teen. But as he thinks about them and questions them, he often goes right to the heart-of-the-matter, and a heart-of-the-matter that's usually missed or forgotten by those of us, especially adults, who "just get it" and go on. Let me give an extended quote from the book's end: "Later, [my friends, Sam and Patrick,] came by in Sam's pickup truck. And we went to the Big Boy just like we always did. Sam told us about her life at school, which sounded very exciting. And I told her about my life in the hospital, which didn't. And Patrick made jokes to keep everyone honest. After we left, we got in Sam's pickup truck, and just like Sam promised, we drove to the tunnel. About half a mile from the tunnel, Sam stopped the car, and I climbed in back. Patrick played the radio really loud so I could hear it, and as we were approaching the tunnel, I listened to the music and thought about all the things that people have said to me over the past year. I thought about Bill telling me I was special. And my sister saying she loved me. And my mom, too. And even my dad and brother when I was in the hospital. I thought about Patrick calling me his friend. And I thought about Sam telling me to do things. To really be there. And I just thought how great it was to have friends and a family...." "But mostly, I was crying because I was suddenly very aware of the fact that it was me standing up in that tunnel with the wind over my face. Not caring if I saw downtown. Not even thinking about it. Because I was standing in the tunnel. And I was really there. And that was enough to make me feel infinite." Starting out, it seems almost primitively black-&-white, until "And Patrick made jokes to keep everyone honest." In the context of all that literal-ness, it's startling. Charlie doesn't just note that "Patrick is telling jokes". Humor is often a struggle for AS/HFA, and so they need to work at understanding it. Through his work, Charlie is seeing not only Patrick's style of humor, but its function. Since AS/HFA often doesn't instinctively grasp "what" to do, they approach others and their world more basically through "why it's done" and "what it means". Because Charlie struggles to see the function of so much, he remains very much in touch with a stripped-down sense of that function's truth. Again, "And Patrick made jokes to keep everyone honest." Then Charlie's "telling" returns to seemingly smple description. But read again: the description is less "simple" than "primary". And in many ways, this is the importance for us in AS/HFA relating. Attention to detail, of what simply "is", is consciously, clearly combined with an almost-primary way of relating to themselves, to others, to their world, as well as a primary relating to language. And when we see ourselves, our world, our lives through Charlie's AS/HFA "primary" lens, we not only see afresh. We see what is "primary", what goes to the heart-of-the-matter, what is the stripped down function, and so what is truly important. Not preachy, but very experiential -- "truly important" very much as-lived. And Charlie winds up poetically pointing to primary experiences, connections and always-available potentials within and around us all: "And that was enough to make me feel infinite". And he got there through self and love and family and friends. Frankly, as a therapist who works most-of-all with severe trauma -- war PTSD, attachment disorders, sexual abuse, and deep grievings -- that's a short list, in those two paragraphs, of what gets lost in trauma and of what it takes to heal. OK, I'm probably probing more than interests most potential readers. As you can see in other reviews, there are many levels to enjoy in this book. If you like, though, let yourself be touched by Charlie's "primary" description-plus-function. You may find it not only intriguging and moving, but healing. And who of us can't use a touch of healing now-and-then? P.S. I read this on Kindle and, even on my laptop, I found it an easy read. It was particularly helpful because, now over 60 years old, I can boost up the print size, making reading more relaxing.

Good book