Books not belonging under the thriller category are rarely authored by men, much less narrated in first person under an adolescent boy's perspective, and 'Perks of Being a Wallflower' by Stephen Chbosky is one of the very few I know.
The first time I knew of this book was way back in 2011, around the months of April to May where they were starting to film this with Logan Lerman and Emma Watson. I was adamant to grab a copy of this book, I even wanted to resort to buying online, too bad my parents won't allow as I was still under-aged and did not known a credit card. So yeah, a year after I have discovered this and then the producers started marketing the movie, copies of the book in this cover sold like wildfire in the local book store. I was one of the few lucky patrons of the book store to buy a copy from the limited first batch. Less than two months later, some of my classmates were clamoring to me that this book was unavailable and yeah, I kept my mouth shut I have one at home.
Just like my Harry Potter hardbound series (which I read after seven years of its date of purchase), I read Perks of Being a Wallflower just yesterday when I bought it over a year and a half ago, but I did not really feel bad.
The structure of the book is like a compilation of letters written by the main protagonist, Charlie, to an unstated receiver. In these letters he wrote about his experiences as he goes through the first year of his freshman year and learning each day of puberty and 'participating' with the crowd.
With his freshman year, Charlie gained friendship with Sam and Patrick, senior step-siblings who opened his eyes to opening up and leaving his cocoon and explore the world as a butterfly.
What made this book unique is how it talked of straightforward issues like smoking cigarettes, pots, partying, getting drunk and stoned which I only encounter in movies, issues and news because I haven't had a first-hand experience of these. Although I already have my opinion against these issues, the book opened a new understanding to me, how these stuff was a way for Charlie to cope up with his own problems.
Though the book is a bit philosophical and you have to read-between-the-lines and assume things, I am not really comfortable with my thoughts about the things not mentioned. The ending was quite vague as it needed a few more explanations and I don't really like assuming things as I might misinterpret the purpose of the author.
So to wrap it up, I am giving Perks of Being a Wallflower a good four out of five, minus points to how shallow how I understood the novel and only saw to the literal side of it but kudos for the originality and how nostalgic it felt for me reading it triggering my hippie side (which I am not) with the books and songs mentioned along the progression of the story and also the ways of how things were done are just not the usual cliche anymore. So I strongly recommend for you to read this, though it make mentions of sexual stuff, it's not the romance type how women novelists write it. xx
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