The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Words cannot describe the adoration my heart withholds for this book.
To start with a little backstory, I grew up as a huge Harry Potter and Percy Jackson fan. While the Percy Jackson movies had some disappointing aspects, I always thought Logan Lerman as Percy was the perfect cast, and then I developed an unhealthy crush on him. So, when I was in middle school (I was about eleven years old) I looked into what other movies Logan Lerman was in and discovered The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Not only was the description and title incredibly interesting to me, but it also starred Emma Watson. Percy Jackson and Hermione Granger in one movie sounded perfect. I had my mom rent the DVD, and while I was too young to really understand the message behind the movie, and even what was really happening most of the time, I was still incredibly entranced by the unique personalities and incredibly aesthetic cinematography and music. I got around to reading the book in the first semester of my freshman year (2018) and it was the first time in a while I had read a book I had actually enjoyed. But I didn’t just enjoy it, I lived this book. I read it, and then I wrote a book report on it for my english class, and then I read it a second time, but with a highlighter. TPOBAW is filled with some of the most eye opening, innocent, meaningful, depressing, real, inspiring, and heartfelt quotes. It touches on mental illnesses, homosexuality, abuse, trauma, and more. It spreads awareness without being too loud and bright about it, and you read it in a way where you can truly feel what they are feeling.
The main character is Charlie. The whole book is based off of letters Charlie writes to the reader, who’s identity is never really revealed. Charlie enters his freshman year of high school. He doesn’t have friends, he’s quiet, and socially awkward. From the first page of the book it hints at Charlie having life struggles with the quote, “So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.” Further into the story, Charlie befriends step-siblings Patrick and Sam, and they kind of open up Charlie’s eyes to the wonders of the world. I don’t want to give up too much of the plot away to those who haven’t read it, so, in warning, there may be a few spoilers ahead.
The first time I read this book, I didn’t understand most of it. The second time, I understood it a bit more. The third, a bit more, and so on. It’s amazing how every time I read this book, it’s like a piece of the story reveals itself a bit more to make more sense. The more you read it, the more you notice things. The foreshadowing of Charlie’s trauma. The bond between Charlie, Sam and Patrick. Why these characters do the things they do. Every time I pick up this book, I have this urge to make myself a better person. It inspires me. This book makes me happy. It makes me sad. It makes me angry and confused and motivated in the best ways. I want a Sam and Patrick in my life. I want to be someone else’s Sam or Patrick. I want to drive through a tunnel in a pickup truck listening to my favorite music and smile at the city lights. I want to know what it’s like to feel infinite. I want to dance to Come On Eileen with my best friends and write a book using an old typewriter. This book has undoubtedly raised my standards in life. And sometimes I worry, because I’m scared I’ll never find my Sam and Patrick, and I’ll never know the feeling of “infinity,” but if there’s anything else this book has taught me, it’s that the good things will come eventually. There’s always going to be a light at the end of the tunnel.
This book is one of my favorite books, if not my absolute favorite. It always will be. This book is a solid 10/10, and I would read it 100 times over.
My Favorite Quotes (well.. some of them, because If I put more it would take forever)
“‘We accept the love we think we deserve.'”
“‘He’s my whole world.’ ‘Don’t ever say that about anyone again. Not even me.'”
“…and there it was. Downtown. Lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder. Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing. And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.”
“It’s like he would take a photograph of Sam, and the photograph would be beautiful. And he would think that the reason the photograph was beautiful was because of how he took it. If I took it, I would know that the only reason it’s beautiful is because of Sam.”
“I am very interested and fascinated by how everyone loves each other, but no one really likes each other.”
“And I made Aunt Helen a promise to only cry about important things because I would hate to think that crying as much as I do would make crying for Aunt Helen less than it is.”
“Just tell me how to be different in a way that makes sense.”
“And I guess I realized at that moment that I really did love her. Because there was noting to gain, and that didn’t matter.”
“Sam tapped her hand on the steering wheel. Patrick held his hand outside the car and made air waves. And I just sad between them. After the song finished, I said something. ‘I feel infinite.'”
“Five minutes of a lifetime were truly spent, and we felt young in a good way.”
“Sam and Patrick looked at me. And I looked at them. And I think they knew. Not anything specific really. They just knew. And I think that’s all you can ever ask from a friend.”
“I drove home listening to some of the songs we listened to those times when we were infinite. And I pretended they were in the car with me.”
“There’s nothing like the deep breaths after laughing that hard. Nothing in the world like a sore stomach for the right reasons.”
“The inside jokes weren’t jokes anymore. They had become stories. Nobody brought up the bad names or the bad times. And nobody felt sad as long as we could postpone tomorrow with more nostalgia.”
“And if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn’t really change the fact that you have what you have. Good and bad.”
“Maybe it’s good to put things in perspective, but sometimes, I think that the only perspective is to really be there.”
“We were just there together. And that was enough.”
