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The Perks of being a Wallflower



The Perks of being a Wallflower (book)

Writer : Stephen Chbosky
year   : 1999

“I would die for you. But I won't live for you.”

“I just think it's bad when a boy looks at a girl and thinks that the way he sees the girl is better than the girl actually is”


It has been a very long time since I read a great book. My last pick is the Alchemyst which is also great in different way.

My curiosity about this book was started when I saw the poster of Emma Watson and Nina Dobrev's new movie on early October, 2012. I was hoping that it would be premiere in my country, in fact it wasn't so I decided to search the books and found out why this movie received such a high rate from IMDB, ignore the main star effect.

So I started to read The Perks of being a Wallflower from e-book.

The Perks of being a Wallflower is a story narrated by a boy named Charlie (which is not a true name). He was junior in high school and has been through a lot since his childhood. He wrote letters to anynomous person and told his feeling, thinking and activities of his life. All name in the letters also disguised with another fiction name. The setting is from 1991-1992.

Charlie is a wallflower (name of flower). By wallflower means he is  a shy, awkward person and has only a very few friends. He has a lovely family, Dad whom used to be a famous football player in college until he made his girlfriend pregnant. Dad's girlfriend is Charlie's Mom who very beautiful and patient. Charlie has one brother whom also a talented football player and the only one person that made their entire family proud, and one sister whom very beautiful. And there was Aunt Helen whom Charlie love very much, but she died in a terrible accident when Charlie was 7 years old.

Because Charlie is very weird, he has no friend until he met two seniors in high school, Sam and Patrick which happen to be brother and sister. Sam is very beautiful and patient. She is the only one person whom stay calm when Charlie get obsessive. Charlie also had a crush with her but Sam told him not to. Her brother, Patrick is a gay but he is really a good friend to Charlie.

Because of Sam and Patrick, Charlie met new friends like Mary Elizabeth, a unique buddhist girl, Brad- Patrick's boyfriend, Alice whom had crush wit Mary Elizabeth, and Craig-Sam's Boyfriend. Those twos has been helping Charlie a lot to went through his first year in high school.

In fact Charlie is a very weird person because he tends to think everything and guilty about such thing. He had a passive obsessif, and must see psychiatrist regularly. There were times when he was so sad, depressed, and cried a lot especially when he thought about his beloved Aunt Helen. Aunt
Helen is a kind of people exclude his family whom buy two presents in December. One for Charlie's birthday that happened on December 24 and the other one for Christmas. She is the second people whom said 'i love you' to Charlie after his Mom. Charlie used to be very closed with Aunt Helen.

There is a part when Charlie saw Sam very broken hearted on her prom night and then Charlie wrote letters anonymous say this one :

“I really did love her. Because there was nothing to gain, and that didn't matter” 

In fact I was moved!!! I don't think it is bullshit at all. The way Charlie said is far from cheap empty romantic flirt but he really meant it. He is happy when Sam happy, and very sad if Sam is hurt.

What so interesting about this book is the honest main character. Charlie is such a sweet, pure, innocent man but very honest. The way Stephen Chbosky narrated the 'daily routines Charlie made the reader feels how it become a Charlie.
I must admit that I almost cried, especially the story about how Aunt Hellen died. I can feel the pain, guilty and the wound. I can feel it is almost impossible to not carried those kind of pain until he grow up. At the other hand, by the Stephen naratted about how 'confusing' Charlie way of thinking, made me admit that oh my God Charlie is very clever boy.
Stephen succeed to translated the way of a 'weird' person thinking into a very beautiful writing.
I must admit this book is the best I ever read based on its genre. This book is the most honest book I ever read.
Like Charlie said inside the book, "I always said this is the book I ever read until I read another new book, and it turns again" also "I don't think any movie/book is great unless its change the may I feel/think", In fact this book is change the way I think. I love this book a lot!!!! I should give credit 8.5 of 10 to this book!!!
Now I am dying to see the movie, and urge to compare it with book version!!!

“But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there”

If you want to read The Perks of being wallflower in e-book version, please click here.

Nb: there is list of books that used to be Charlie's reference in this book. Here are the books:

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