(Review) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Reviewed by: Caressa

I give it: 3.5/5 stars

(Summary from Goodreads)
     "Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie is navigating through the strange worlds of love, drugs, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", and dealing with the loss of a good friend and his favorite aunt."

      In honor of Banned Books Week, amazing reviews and ratings, and a large community of people loving every part of this novel, I finally decided to pick up the Perks of Being a Wallflower at the library. This recommendation has been flirting in and out of reading career for a year or so, but I didn't really pick up this book with a lot of expectations. There were an extremely large amount of important topics in this novel but I didn't really enjoy it. 
     My favorite and least favorite part of the novel was the writing style; Charlie begins the book with simple middle school language and poor sentence structure and as he grows, reads, and learns, his writing becomes more fluid and correct. This beautifully portrays his growth. Even with his growth, I had trouble believing he would form the types of relationships he did (although it was not at all remarkable or improbable).
     There were some fantastically important issues in this novel-- feeling unbeatable, drugs, sex, autism, depression, first dates, The Rocky Picture Horror Show, to name a few. One line, however, particularly touched me:
      "And in that moment, I swear we were infinite." (pg 39)
That really sold the novel for me. Things change and problems are everywhere but when you really branch out and find friends there are some really amazing times even if (as with Charlie) depression follows.
     I really think I would suggest this book highly to people on individual cases, and more loosely, universally (each recommendation to touch different topics). Have you read this book? Did you enjoy it? Leave your thoughts in comments or link your own review. ;)