Book Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower (spoiler alert)

“If somebody likes me, I want them to like the real me, not what they think I am. And I don’t want them to carry it around inside. I want them to show me. So I can feel it too. I want them to be able to do whatever they want around me. And if they do something I don’t like, I’ll tell them.”

Charlie is a freshman in high school. The term “Wallflower” is thrown by his friend because of his ability to see things, analyze them, but keep quiet the whole time. Written in diary format from Charlie’s point of view, we can see clearly about how Charlie sees the world. It also reminded us who experienced high school in the US, about how hard it is, to understand ourselves and be understood by others at the same time.

“I would die for you but I won’t live for you”

It’s not clear whether he has a psychological problem of any kind, or just traumatized by a tragedy in his past. But happen as a very sensitive boy which also has a very high IQ, make him becomes socially awkward. But that's what interesting about this book. We look at things from Charlie's perspective, which is very naive and honest.

“I guess we all forget sometimes. And I think everyone is special in their own way. I really do.”

In his very young of age, Charlie has to deal with so many things. The sudden death of his best friend who committed suicide, makes Charlie alone in his first days of freshman years. Therefore, he gets bullied a lot, and finally expressing his rage by getting into a fight, enough for making other kids leave him alone. As school struggle is not enough, Charlie has to witness his sister being slapped by her boyfriend, and forced to stay quiet to his parents. Later on, he has to accompany his sister to get an abortion from the same man. The problem goes on and on and on ranging from homosexual friend, sex, drugs, and family drama. Charlie freshman year seems like a roller coaster, while at the same time he also experienced first girlfriend, first date, and social parties.

“And I guess I realized at that moment that I really did love her. Because there was nothing to gain, and that didn’t matter.”

Reading this bring the same feeling with reading A Catcher in The Rye, no wonder many people call this as “Modern version of A Catcher in The Rye”.  This book gets banned in many schools in the US. I don’t really know why. But as an enthusiast of the recent mental illness issue in the US, I'm glad that Charlie finally has friends, understand the feeling of others, and get recognized by his friends and family.

“But even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them.”

Reading this book makes me do a contemplation of my teenage year. I can feel again the roller coaster of emotion while trying to define myself and really understand it. I….feel….infinite.. J