The Perks of Being a Wallflower

This was my first time reading this book but I really enjoyed it. It took me a little bit to get into the writing style of the book but the content definitely made up for that. One thing that I found refreshing about this book was the overall outlook of the main character. He didn't always do the right thing, or say the right thing but he was always looking for ways to make himself a better friend, brother, son, student, etc. Even though not all of his situations were completely relatable, the overall feelings and emotions behind Charlie are ones that adolescents face, especially in their first few years of high school. Another thing that I liked about this book is that it reaches a wide group of students since Charlie is a freshmen and his friends are all seniors.

This book had a lot of surprises in it. The first major one was Brad and Patrick being gay. I liked that it added this because I think that it reaches out to those in high school who are different and feel as though they will be outcasted because of it- a group of kids that don't always get that kind of attention in literature provided at schools. The biggest surprise in the book for me (and I'm assuming most) was when we found out that Charlie's aunt had molested him when he was little. When the psychiatrist asked him to focus on past memories, I kind of gathered that he had some sort of repressed memory, but I would have never expected that to of happened to him. When it came to that page I actually had to put the book down for a couple minutes because I was so shocked!

One thing that I liked and also hated, was the secrecy of the letters. I would have enjoyed finding out AT LEAST who "Charlie" was writing to and why this person stuck out to him so much. On the other hand, it was a creative way to write a book and the mystery of it left it to focus more on the overall moral of the book.

I enjoyed the ending. Even though it wasn't a happily-ever-after, it gave us hope for Charlie and it gave a good message about valuing family and friends who love you.

I think that I would consider teaching this in a classroom but I would probably rather recoomend it to an individual student. Some of the content may not be perceived appropriate for students (even though all of his letters are expressed in an innocent and relatable way) so I think it would be easier to be able to talk to an individual students parent(s) and discuss the content of the book.