Rating: 
Summary: The Joy of Feeling Infinite
Review: My friend loaned this book to me in my freshman year of high school, telling me I would love it, and I absolutely did. Since then, it became a staple of my high school. Everyone read it, everyone passed it around, and everyone underlined their favorite quotes. Almost my entire book is underlined!
Anyway, this book is really about life. It really makes you look at yourself in terms of Charlie. You become Charlie. I know how weird that sounds, but you have to read it to believe it!
This book is absolutely wonderful, and a must-read for everyone. At college, I'm still passing it around to any willing soul. Very Salinger-esque, which is a high compliment in my opinion.
Everyone should read this book, so they can truly know what it means to feel infinite.
Rating: 
Summary: Very effective
Review: Nicely written. The author captures something important about the voice of a teenage boy as he deals with popularity, family issues, sex, and drugs and alcohol.My only complaint is that the revelation at the end of the book has become a rather hackneyed plot device by now -- how many novels have we read in which the cause of some problem is childhood abuse?
Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile!
Review: I'd been told that this book was similar to The Catcher in the Rye, and it is on some levels. It's structured as a series of letters from the main character (Charlie) to an unknown recipient. Charlie is a delightful main character...introspective, sensitive, insightful, and never angsty (this is the big difference from Catcher). Chbosky tackles pretty much every issue that a teen could possibly face...drugs, alcohol, love, loss, you name it. While I didn't find it to be the most original book, I loved the writing style and there were a ton of great quotes. As a plus for book lovers Charlie reads a good number of well-loved classics and gives his opinions on them as he relates them to his life. Some of the titles include The Fountainhead, The Catcher in the Rye, The Stranger, The Great Gatsby, and To Kill a Mockingbird. Overall very touching and engrossing.
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Summary: A new Catcher in the Rye?
Review: Excellent, thought-provoking, quick read.
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Summary: Read this book, and then loan it to your best friend
Review: I would recomend this book to anyone, and I think I have. I read it straight through the first time and was left speechless. I can't count how many times I have read it since. This book is simply amazing.It is a journey that everyone should take. Anyone can relate to Charlie in some way, and any true wallflower can understand his woes. His journey through his freshman year is what we are all faced with at some point in our lives. Love, death, friendship and change are human truths that we all have to deal with. The sincerity and feeling in Charlie's letters is refreshing. This book is true to life, it is very real and very honest. It has gotten me through hard times and truly changed the way I viewed the world. This book is full of epiphanies. You should read it, think about it, and then read it again. I have loaned this book to most of the people I know and would recomend it to anyone, whether you are beyond high school or not. There is a little Charlie in all of us, and this book will touch you.
Rating: 
Summary: The perks of trying to make sense
Review: While what this novel explores is by no means new ground, it is at the same time so honest and accurate in depicting the psyche of its teenager protagonist that it will easily keep you intrigued and interested.
Using a very effective trick, namely, a letter (or diary) form narration you become acquainted with the life and works of Charlie, a teenager, who is not "cool" or in any way popular (thus "wallflower"), but who becomes sort of an escort for you you in his world as he tries to cope: growing up, learning, failing, failing again, sometimes succeeding, and everything the journey at that particular age involves.
Naturally, it envolves themes that everyone that has been a teenager is to one degree or another familiar with. Drugs, experimenting with sexuality, learning about emotions, trying to interpret, trying to define the everyday reality he's into.
Utterly convincing, the story feels like it was written by a teenager at his teenage years (kudos to the author then ).
I personally caught myself reminiscing most of the time as i went through the sometimes simplistic questions that Charlie poses. That speaks volumes because caught reminiscing while reading a story like that is a good sign. It means the story is "accurate" , as accurate a novel like that can be since we all experience many different types of reality.
"The perks of being a wallflower" is also full of many humorous moments the kind of "funniness" that emerges when you are learning about life and commit yourself to mistakes or situations that might seem to you as super tragic or critical but they are just part of the process of growing up and later on you reinstate them for what they really are.
One of the few novels of that kind that explore homosexuality in a plain natural manner "The perks..." is a winner there too.
Recommended reading not only for those that want to compare notes of their past (or even present) but especially for those bringing up kids. It's one thing to have been there and another to remember how it really feels like going through it.
And when it comes to describing the "feeling" of it all, the helplessness and the agony or the angst of teenagehood "The perks..." is a wonderful contribution.
Rating:
Summary: For the Dawsons Creek generation
Review: For all the lost souls with the over active linguistic skills common to most teenagers of our generation Chbosky magages to encapsulate all the fears and wonderings of the mind into one life-altering read. No matter what problems or thoughts create that sense of failiure in your life, he manages to find time to make you "feel infinite" just for one moment. The empathy felt with the characters is equal to no other novel's protagonists, and the distinct emotional attachment felt removes you violently from the limbo teenagers so often unwittingly place themselves in. If you do nothing else with your life, make sure you read 'The Perks...' as it will most definitely MAKE you look at life with a profound new sense of wisdom and belonging.
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Summary: Great Read!
Review: Wonderfull story of a young teen, and his surroundings.
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Summary: Jakob Dylan's biography, except not
Review: This book seems to have a definite case of Amazon.com syndrome. The one where all the reviews seem to consist of five stars and titles consist of "I'd give this five gazillion stars if I could". Just a tip, I've found that when you are trying to decide whether or not to try something just scroll down to the three or perhaps four star reviews because they tend to be the most balanced. I've been convinced more easily to read something by a mixed review because these tend to be the most well informed. This probably sounds uppity, but it's quite true. Anyway this book was quite interesting. Never really read these type of books much in high school. Can't even remember how I heard about this book. But it was a good find. Sure the main character goes through a little TOO much in the course of the plot like many have pointed out. This book definitely has it's flaws. But by the end of the book I was rather touched. Charlie is the type of protagonist that you can't help but like. And sure the book has too much 'emo' to it, but that doesn't bother me very much. We need things like this to balance out the constant nonsense that we're barraged with (gets on soap box) especially the onslaught of youth culture. It's like the ultimate oxymoron that an MTV show about narcissistic drama queens rewarded for sitting around is called the 'Real World'. Sure not everything in this book might be completely authentic, but it tries at least.
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Summary: The Best Book I have Ever Read-Honestly
Review: Let me start by kind of introducing myself. I am a 15-yr. old sophomore from Central Illinois and am much like the protagonist of this story, Charlie. I don't know how Stephen Chbosky did it, but he perfectly captured EVERY emotion of growing up and the solace of friends and music in a world of high school that can easily be disheartening.
Charlie is a kid that isn't exactly a loser, but hes not popular either. He is in the middle, and starts his freshman year without anyone since his best friend in junior high committed suicide. He as a normal family life with the dad who used to be an athlete and the quiet, stays-out-of-the-way mother. His sister is the stereotypical older sister rebel with or without a cause. His brother is a football star going to Penn State on a scholarship.
This story is a year in Charlie's life. All of the ups and downs that come with it. His friends are great, and a lot of social issues are noted by them.
I really cannot say enough about this book. If you are a teenager who is looking for a book you can actually relate to, do not hesitate at all in checking this out. I'm very glad I did because it restored my faith in reading.
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