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Perks of Being a Wallflower

Perks of Being a Wallflower

List Price: $22.25
Your Price: $18.47
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The perks of reading this book
Review: Being the avid reader i am, i am very paticular about the books i choose. I must say this is one of the better books that ive picked up. It focous's on Charlie, a 14 or 15 year old boy who, to begin with, just isnt very social. He is introduced some people from school and is thrown in the life of fast driving, good music, mix tapes, gay parks, and weed brownies. The book, written in entry/letter form, is easy to follow and easy to relate to. Id say that the age groups to read this book is 7th-11th grade. The fun and yet sensitive book is a must have for any teenager.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: READ THIS BOOK!
Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written by Stephen Chbosky, is a coming of age story that portrays the teenage life of a boy named Charlie, who is just entering High School. He battles with finding new friends, trying drugs, fitting in, and overall, just finding himself in the world. "I went to the library and checked out a book because I was getting scared . . . The book said that sometimes people take LSD, and they don't really get out of it . . . I started breathing fast in the library" (Chbosky 101). Charlie experimented with LSD, and realized that just because his friends did something, that didn't mean he had to do it too.

I highly recommend this book. It's a page turner that has a lot going for it. There is a very clear plot. "I just wish that god or my parents or Sam or my sister or someone would just tell me what's wrong with me" (Chbosky 139). Charlie just wants to know who he is. He's tired of trying to find out on his own, and he's ready to just have someone tell him. Charlie deals with a lot in this coming of age novel. He is the source of the major conflict in the story. "Patrick did call me, but all he said was that Craig got really angry at Sam about me, and I should keep staying away until things got clear" (Chbosky 130). All of Charlie's friends got mad at him when he kissed his true love, Sam, instead of his own girlfriend, in a game of "Truth or Dare". Everyone turned against him, but this was just the beginning. Many things happen to Charlie, that by the end of the story, you feel as though you know him yourself.

Read this book! No matter your age or gender, it's one that everyone can enjoy. It's the coming of age story of a boy who is lost, and it portrays a wonderful new perspective if a teenage boy. Adults will learn, or be reminded of what it's actually like to be young, and kids will just understand completely. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written by Stephen Chbosky, is a well-written, well-rounded novel that I highly recommend!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Read any book mentioned in this book instead.
Review: Where to begin... I think what happened here is that Chbosky wrote a great book. And then MTV stepped in (yes, this is a "MTV Books" book) and mandated that this be more marketable to high school kids. The main problem I had with this book was a matter of believablity. The main character's (charlie) best friend commits suicide before he starts high school, and for whatever, any other friends are gone now too. So you have a kid, going into high school, and he has no friends. Somehow, he manages to meet two people, become best friends with them, and then in turn become best friends with thier friends. No high school on earth works like that. Another key point that I found very insulting and disturbing is when Charlie's sister has an abortion, and there is absolutely no physical or mental recourse. She sleeps for 5 hours in the back of a car, goes home, eats dinner, and life is normal again. Thats not how it works. Any woman that has had an abortion will tell you that you are mentally a mess afterwards. This portrayal is about 1,000 times worse when you consider that the target audience here is high school kids. Also, the fact that Charlie cries on nearly every page, gets particularly annoying after the first 20 times. I now understand why emo kids love this book.

As my title states: Don't buy this book. Instead, read one of the books mentioned within this book.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: the perks of being a wallflower
Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a great book to read for high school kids. I felt when I read it that I could relate a lot to Charlie the main character and books that allow you to feel what the character goes through are fun to read. The whole story is really about Charlie growing up, experiencing every thing that a 15 year old would experience. Charlie was a wallflower and it was good for me to see how other people who are totally opposite from me. But really the reason I liked this book is because I write just like Charlie, the way he uses his words and the way he writes. He writes the book as a journal using stream of consciousness. It was great to see how alike we write and that's why I liked this book so much.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a very real story about the struggles teenagers have to deal with. Charlie is a wallflower or outcast who is really searching for some sort of truth throughout the entire book. Weather you are a teenager or an adult I think everyone can relate to some sort of aspect that is presented. All of his thoughts and emotions are written in a letterform so we as readers get to experience everything with him, mostly for the first time. Charlie never says who the letters are too or why he writes them, he just writes.
Although this book takes place in the early 90's, I could relate to the majority and of the feelings, emotions, and events that take place. Entering high school as a freshman unsure and unaware of who you are is frightening and we hear all of Charlie's thoughts. In the beginning of the book Charlie's best and only friend commits suicide and that really tarnishes his ability to trust people. Later he meets a few upperclassmen that introduce him to drugs, sex, and music-, all of which change his life.
Charlie is trying to figure out who he really is, with an athletic older brother who the family worships and a sister who "sneaks around" with her abusive boyfriend he already has a reputation for the world. However, he does not want to just be a younger brother of the star athletic or the pregnant sister, he wants to be Charlie. Though he isn't quite sure, who or what Charlie is, he starts to figure that out.
Charlie falls in love with a girl who does not love him back but when she does finally start to love him, Charlie finds himself overwhelmed with emotion and cannot love her. He is in a constant struggle over what he really wants. Charlie finds himself caught up with drugs and becomes a frequent drug user during a part of the book, wandering the streets, always searching. When his sister finds out the truth about his drug habit and confronts him about her own secret (being pregnant) Charlie finds an emotional connection with a person he though he would never have. When Charlie walks in on the star quarterback for their high school kissing his male friend, he begins to question his own sexuality. Again, he is searching for truth. All of the incidents- happening to an ordinary freshmen teenage boy.
I would suggest this first to teenagers. Drugs, alcohol, rape, sexuality, teen- pregnancy are all issues that teenagers today have to deal with. I would also suggest this to teenagers because his emotions are so true of what high school brings you- happiness, joy, success and also sad, depressed, let down, and confused. Charlie constantly battles these emotions. I would suggest this book to adults to read with an open mind and try to remember what the strong emotions felt during high school and some of those may even linger on to present day.
I loved this book and could not put it down. I felt myself wanting to write back to Charlie because he is such a genuine guy who is just trying to get through high school. Some may criticize the fact that many of Charlie's likes in music and television are much older then his age (The Smiths, M*A*S*H) but I wouldn't criticize, instead look at the fact that he is a misfit so liking things that most people of his age don't like or know about would be so fit perfectly for him. Other people may say that the issues he goes through are not real and teenagers do not have to deal with that. I am a teenager myself and can honestly say I know at least one person who has had to directly deal with drugs, alcohol, rape, sexuality or teen-pregnancy.
I rate The Perks of Being a Wallflower a 10/10 and highly recommend it everyone.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Unforgetable Novel!
Review: PERKS is such an outstanding novel. After THE LOSERS' CLUB by Richard Perez (which another reviewer recommended), it's the best novel I've read in at least a year! It transcends what is typical and expected for books about awkward teenagers and reaches deeper into the meaning of self discovery. As I read the book, I was finding myself more intrigued by Charlie, the narrator, because he reminds me so much of myself. He's the type of kid that seems so ordinary but has such an extraordinary mind. Charlie is so likeable and anybody can relate to him. He has this unique and rare thought process that is simplistic yet reaches high levels of intrigue and complexity. All the events, both happy and sad, that occur are things that happen to everyday people. Readers can empathize with Charlie and understand Chbosky's tone about the struggles of being a teenager. This is one of the most readable books I've come across and I think teenagers would thoroughly enjoy it, so I highly recommend it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Favorite book ever
Review: This is the best book I've ever read. You really feel like you are friends with Charlie, and feel the emotions he's feeling, due to the author's writing skills.
Charlie is a freshman in highschool, who is not very popular. Once his best friend died, he became socially distant, but it all changes once he makes new friends who are years older than him. the letters charlie writes all lead to a sad but suprising ending. i definetly reccomend it to anyone

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: loved it
Review: most beautiful book i've ever read. 1st book to ever make me cry.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: amazing
Review: this was an amazing book. A few of my friends suggested it and after I finished it I couldn't help but advise it to a few others as well. it was very well written from a unique perspective that showed the unique vulnerability of young charlie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great
Review: very accurate portrayal of teenage depression through the eyes of a boy whose strongest natural instinct is love


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