The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Our Review

Warning this review contains some spoilers

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a book I have heard mentioned a number of times but had never got around to reading it. I finally chose to read it after an author I love personally recommended it to me.

I cannot describe how much I loved this book. I finished it less than an hour ago and already I want to start it all over again.

I have heard a lot of speculation about who the unnamed person is that Charlie is writing to but I don’t think it really matters. The person receiving the letters is useful in terms of letting the story develop but other than that it serves no purpose. All the reader needs to know is it is someone who will listen and understand.

Initially when I first started reading the book I felt that Charlie was a little too naïve for a fifteen-year-old boy and certainly too selfless for an average teenager. However, I soon got too caught up in the story to think about anything other than the story.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is written in the form of letters addressed to an unnamed reader known only as ‘Dear friend.’ The narrator, Charlie is an outsider in school and to some extent within his home life.

Charlie’s brother is leaving to play football in college and his sister is too preoccupied with her boyfriend to pay much attention to her younger brother.

All of this changes when Charlie makes friends with a small group of outsiders. Charlie forms a strong friendship with stepbrother and stepsister Patrick and Sam.

The Perks of Being a Wildflower deals with a number of potentially difficult issues including suicidal feelings, drugs and abuse but it is sweetened with the friendship between Charlie, Patrick and Sam.

We accept the love we think we deserve is a quote I have seen numerous times on various social media pictures and is a quote which is relevant for the majority of the characters featured in the book. Sam, Patrick, Mary-Elizabeth, Charlie’s sister and without a doubt Charlie himself.  

“So, this is my life. And I want you to know I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.”

I loved this line because it struck me as being an accurate representation of how someone dealing with depression and other issues would be likely to feel.

One of my favourite things about The Perks of Being a Wallflower was the relationship between Charlie and his English teacher Bill. I loved reading Charlie’s reactions of some of the books I have read and loved myself and also to some books I have never heard of.

One of the other things I enjoyed about this book was the way Charlie and Sam don’t instantly become involved romantically. I liked that it takes time for it to develop and that she calls him on not knowing her well enough to love her.

The descriptions of family life also struck me as being incredibly realistic and extremely moving at times.

This Perks of Being a Wallflower has made it into my life of all-time favourite books.

Our Final Rating...

Wed, 9th August 2017