The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Rating: ★★★★★

This will ultimately be one of the best books I have encountered in my life. The characters, the writing, the themes, locations, and references in this book are phenomenal and this particular story left me utterly speechless. I saw the movie version and had the ending ruined for me but even though it was ruined, I didn't give it much notice because this book in both metaphysical and literally aspects were astounding.

For a simple summary, this book is about a boy named Charlie, he is someone who doesn't necessarily participate in life and instead observes his surroundings and he is always in his thoughts. He writes letters to us the readers and we absorbed into his world.

He is nervous about Highschool and sadly he has no friends because his only best friend committed suicide and people find him weird and strange. Luckily he meets these two Seniors, Sam and Patrick, who change his world and inspire him to be himself and participate outside his comfort zone. It is a coming of age book and you get to see how in a course of an year how much Charlie changes and I loved the way he wrote his letters and his train of thought.

When reading this book, I really took my time and didn't speed through it because I realize that when you take the time and read his letters, you can pick up on the different emotions Charlie was experiencing, and being fascinated with his world I personally felt the emotional and psychological changes that Charlie went through. I love how in many ways I could connect with Charlie and disconnect at the same time and never feeling bored or disinterested in his life.

I have never smoke, done recreational drugs, drink alcohol or any of this illegally activities that teenagers do when they go to Highschool. I don't approve in participating in these habits but I didn't feel disturbed by Charlie's "activities". What made me get very emotional was how I could relate a lot to Charlie and understand the way he writes and why he feels the way he feels, and how unique and delicate he is when he comes to expressing emotions or thoughts.

Charlie reminds me of a flower, unique, beautiful, and fragile. I need to bow down to Stephen Chbosky for this book and how he perfectly fitted the parallels between the readers and Charlie. When reading this, I started thinking about this book in a philosophical way and experiencing Charlie's world vividly and in detailed. When it comes to Charlie, he is a pure filter, experiencing everything new for the first time, and showing how Charlie is human and someone who is innocent and not tainted by society. I thought of that concept half way through and I love it how when Charlie's reads Fountainhead, he doesn't read it for what it is but accepted the role of filtering the book through his life experiences and discovering different ideas and point of view that he had never thought before and how in every book he reads, he always find something philosophical and nostalgic.

I don't like how many people compare Charlie to Holden because they are two completely different characters. Holden is a pure selfish brat whereas Charlie was genuine and couldn't fake his emotions. Plus I didn't mind that Charlie cried for a lot of things because I remember when I was younger and till this day I still do it which is when I admire something beautiful in my life whether it be books, art, music, dance, theatre, when I capture what is beautiful in my eyes, I want to live in the moment and I get overwhelm with emotions and cry and I believe that for Charlie, crying was an outlet of expressing his emotions but opening himself up to what's happening in front of him and letting him be human without repressing anything.

The ending shouldn't come for a shock for anyone because the way he writes, it is plainly clear that something is not right with him. I can ramble on and on and on and I wish I could write forever about this book because it honestly impacted me in ways that currently I cannot process at the moment. I am so grateful for this book and the movie did a faithful adaptation which I'm glad because I LOVE THE MOVIE!!!!

I highly recommending this book for everyone and please for my sake disentangle yourself from any books like Catcher in the Rye and read this book for what it is and enjoy the magical experience!