Book O' Clock: Perks of reading Perks.

Perks of reading Perks.

Posted by Sandra on Saturday, January 19, 2013. Filed under: Book o Clock, Books, Movies, Reviews, Stephen Chbosky

Title: The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Pages: 213
Published: 1999
Read In: 2005
Rating: 5/5

I'm really happy because today I got a mail from a Brazilian girl who asked me to post my review of Stephen Chboskys's "The Perks of Being a Wallflower".

The main reason why I got excited is because someone in Brazil reads my blog!!

The second one, because she asked me to post a review about the book that made a difference in my life.

So, I'm not quite sure this is an objective review since I adore this book, but here are my thoughts about it:

When I first read this book I was 12 years old, and I was going through a lot of similar situations related to school, friends and self discovery. I didn't own the book back then, a friend lent it to me so I used to read it in my recess time at school. This book changed my life, it truly did. It changed the way I used to see the world around me, it made me wonder: Am I a wallflower?

In my opinion, this was such and original and amazing way to narrate a book: Through letters.

Charlie is an amazing character, so complex, unique and real and he talks about his life through letters sent to an unknown character (I thought that by the end of the book I would know who he was writing to, sadly I didn't). Charlie poured his heart on those letters, he wrote about his struggles in life, constant body and mind changes and how he dealt with it. He had to deal with a lot of issues, like the suicide of his best friend, falling in love with someone older than him that only saw him as a friend, discovering sexuality, being introduced to a world of drugs and alcohol at the age of 15, violence, sex abuse and self discovery. I, like Charlie, want to be a writer, and that's another reason why I loved him so much.

In my opinion he is an amazing, complex, well-written character, and I totally connected with him through the whole reading. This is a story of a real person, it’s not fiction, and maybe that’s why I liked it so much, because this book gave something unique to us readers, it is real and it’s honest, maybe a bit raw when it comes to certain situations, but that’s what makes it an amazing and compelling story.

Charlie’s development through the book is amazing, you can see how he starts as a shy, disturbed guy, and how he finds out that there’s more to life than to pity himself, how he discovers the true power of friendship and love, and most important, how he realizes that he is important, that he matters and that he can accomplish everything he wants. How could this book not be amazing? I really wish I had friends like Patrick and Sam, they are incredible. It has a great writing quality, Stephen Chbosky made a great job with his modern prose and with the characters he created, the plot is believable, touching and well, amazing.

OH and thank you Mr. Chbosky for making me feel infinite and giving me one of the most utterly amazing, real, useful quote of my life:

"WE ACCEPT THE LOVE WE THINK WE DESERVE"

I've read this book 13 times in 8 years. Now I have my own copy, and it has an special place in my bookshelf and in my heart. Everything about this book screams classic! One of the best Young Adult books I’ve ever read in my whole life.