The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower , written by Stephen Chbosky ,is the novel that we will be reading this year in First and Second “bachillerato”. 

It is a story about  growing up in High School. Charlie writes letters that are unique but devastating about his experience in the school. This novel may have certain effect on the reader; if the reader is in High School he may feel the same way as Charlie, that is to say, an `outsider´, insecure like a `wallflower´ who prefers to pass unnoticed rather than be `seen´.

The main character, Charlie, is loveable from the very beginning of the novel.One may feel like taking notes of some sentences in the letters that he writes in the book. Charlie is an honest character yet with an intense depth and intelligent mind.

The book has its ups and downs. The pros of this novel are that the letter writing is really open and sincere, even though we do not know who he is writing to.The events happening in the story could happen in any school with characters that may be well taken from any classrooms

The Cons are that, as the novel progresses, his teacher claims that his writing is getting better but we do not see that as we continue to read a style proper of a below freshman level even though this could do with the fact that the main character might suffer from some sort of autism.

In this novel we read about his first kiss, his feelings towards his new friends, towards literature and music. He is naive about so many things and his roughness at certain times makes the reader laugh out loud. He deals with issues like love, having a gay friend, dealing with death but also he shares his love of music and literature, even these are issues almost forgotten in youth these days.

This book will be given to the students with two intentions; one reason is how easy it is to read and another reason because, even though Charlie is not a role model, he does show the importance of being different and accept s the fact that friends come in all sorts of packages.He lives a life which is not `cool´, he does not speak to others as he keeps to himself, he blends in very well and turns out to be unnoticeable, he is insecure.On the other hand we read how innocent and pure his outlook is in life. We see a special kid like Charlie coping with being in High School and overcoming the problems he faces day in day out.

It is a book worth reading because it transcends time. When ever one reads it one feels related to it in many different ways.