Book Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

It’s strange the times people choose to be generous.

I just reread the quotes I typed into my phone for this review as a refresher (because, no, it definitely hasn’t been three weeks since I read this) and they punched me straight in the heart. I was rethinking my love for this book as I, for three weeks, kept trying to force myself to write this review. Turns out that was unnecessary! I really freakin’ love the prose here. Chbosky captures that certain nostalgia that comes with every classic, and it makes this novel feel like reading on a snow day with a candle lit and a mug of hot chocolate and a fuzzy blanket wrapped around you. In a sentence that isn’t a run-on, this book feels so comforting.

Rating: 5 Shells

WE ALL NEED A BILL IN OUR LIVES.
Charlie is such a special narrator, so I will undoubtedly talk about him soon. But one of the notes in my phone is of my new favorite book scene ever, when Charlie has lunch at Bill’s house. I love this relationship and Bill as this role model figure for Charlie throughout the book. Bill is the one who tells Charlie to start participating in life, and gives him books to read and the assignment to write about them. I think we all need a person who will encourage us introverts to live. What Bill does doesn’t seem so big, but I haven’t been able to shake this one thing:

Then, he asked me about girls, and I told him how I really loved Sam, and how I wondered what the lady who wrote The Fountainhead would say about how I came to realize that I loved her.

This is such a huge development for Charlie. He used to live in books and now he sees this book as it relates to his own life and to his own actions. He’s not living in the book, the book exists in his world now.The Perks of Being a Wallflower consistently drops names of well-known classics. And, at least for me, it takes a lot to truly understand how these novels are affecting Charlie’s life. That quote, for example, means a lot more when you know Ayn Rand’s philosophy of objectivism. In other words, Rand would probably not like that Charlie came to realize he loved Sam when Charlie found out that all he wanted was for her to be happy. Because that is not individualism, that’s living for someone else. It felt good to understand some references to the classics like this. Maybe you didn’t need to read The Fountainhead to understand it, but it’s just another way that this book at first glance seems like a 213 page novella, and then Charlie says things like this and suddenly it’s larger than The Fountainhead itself. I love that Bill is able to encourage Charlie to come out of himself. While it may lead him to some messy habits, ultimately the advice Bill gives to Charlie to participate changes his whole life for the better. Hats off to you, Bill.

WE ACCEPT THE LOVE WE THINK WE DESERVE.
This book is tricky. The straightforward and simple prose can be quite deceiving. If you don’t try at all when reading this, it can feel like Chbosky made Charlie’s voice naive and it can all come across as somehow condescending. This book, like Charlie hears about The Catcher in the Rye, is whatever you make it. For me, it was a story of a young boy who learned to participate in his life. And it felt so truthful. Charlie doesn’t give the reader the most detailed descriptions here. Things are often described as “strange” and there are enough uses of “very” to make 100 English teachers’ red pens die out. But because of this, Charlie’s voice feels genuine. There is so much between the lines here, just as there is so much more to a person than what they tell you. Charlie isn’t super self-aware, but he is always thoughtful. I got the most out of his character here, but I get the impression that if I were to reread this a few months from now, I’d learn something entirely different, from a character maybe not even mentioned in this review. For 213 pages, there is so much to analyze.

I’M SORRY, IS THIS MY LIFE?
Chbosky shines in capturing those little family moments. Watching a big brother succeed on the football field, driving to a family Thanksgiving. These things seem like such tiny moments, and I guess they are, but they are parts of life that only a narrator like Charlie can get right. These family moments felt like they were stolen right from my heart. It just amazes me how this book could be so relevant to my life. I really did feel like I was Charlie for large parts of this book.

I loved this book. It felt like the truest parts of growing up. The car rides to family parties full of arguments, watching your big brother’s game tape with the whole family; these are moments of life that Chbosky captures so truthfully and I loved it. So that’s what this book meant to me: family and participating. And if that doesn’t appeal to you, want to know the honest truth? It’ll mean something completely different to you. The only consistency is that The Perks of Being a Wallflower will shake something deep in your core if you look a little harder, and if you allow it.

Anyone else love the way Chbosky wove in literary classics? Charlie is definitely a unique MC.