The Perks of Being a Wallflower: to read or not to read?

On this week we were supposed to choose one book that we will be reading during the first semester. After thinking for a while I decided to start reading “The perks of being wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky. He is a well-known American writer, screenwriter and film director (by the way, it was him who filmed the movie “The perks of being wallflower”).

The main character of this book is a shy but intelligent, awkward but supportive fifteen-year-old guy named Charlie. He’s really afraid of starting his freshmen year of high school that’s why he writes letters to anonymous recipient. And we turn out to be this recipient.

To my mind, the way this book was written is amazing. It feels like you’re reading Charlie’s diary. And you actually do it. Then step by step you understand Charlie has become your friend (actually I have this feeling even though I have read only 4 letters).

“I know these will all be stories some day, and our pictures will become old photographs. We all become somebody’s mom or dad. But right now, these moments are not stories. This is happening. I can see it. This one moment when you know you’re not a sad story. You are alive”.

What is more important — the book has frank depictions of teen loneliness, friendship, sexuality, homosexuality, drugs and alcohol, suicide, mental problems. Still, it’s discussed unostentatiously in teenager’s words. The vocabulary of the book seems to be quite simple but as Charlie is a developing character so the way he writes, the complexity of sentences and vocabulary keeps changing as well.

To sum up, the “Perks of Being a Wallflower” is an honest look into the life of a teenager. And we are teenagers. Now we are freshmen as he’s. That’s why we’ll totally get this story and see how similar we actually are.