review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky + movie review

“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.”
 ― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Publication Date: J February 1st 1999 
Publisher: MTV Books and Pocket Books
Pages: 213
Series: Standalone 
Genre: Contemporary, YA

The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

I feel like The Perks of Being a Wallflower didn't have that many perks.

As a general statement, I think I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower at the wrong time. I felt like I had already read this type of story. Deep teenager thoughts, popular high school cliches, introverts and extroverts team up etc etc. The Perks of Being a Wallflower vaguely reminded me of The Rest of Us Just Live Here, but anyway! I'm (pretty) sure I would have enjoyed Charlie's story more if I read it in 1999. But we're not in 1999 and I just didn't enjoy this. *sad face*

Right off the bat, the characters in this book all felt bland and never had the strongest actions. Especially Charlie, our main character. He's 15 and later on, turns 16. The stuff this kid was seeing, doing, and experiencing wasn't appropriate for a 15 year old. Charlie's friends, Patrick and Sam, are seniors so it didn't surprise me that the seniors were doing drugs and drinking alcohol. But it was Charlie that was rather alarming and disturbing for me. Charlie was pretty immature and spoke like a child. Yet his actions (again: that he experienced and saw) were definitely at an adult level. There was no in between with this kid! It also seemed like his senior friends never treated him like a friend.

I think Charlie had some kind of disorder. Charlie experienced illusions and mentioned several times that he was in hospitals. And we never get full, detailed reasons. His unknown disorder was basically his wallflower reputation, which I completely disagree because something was seriously wrong with Charlie! Anyway, Patrick and Sam were important(ish) side characters and I just felt meh for them. I was more interested in Patrick because he was gay but in the closet. I would legit (re)read The Perks of Being a Wallflower if it was in Patrick's point of view. He was more engaging than Charlie.

Writing wise, this book was written in letters which I liked! But I didn't like Charlie's narrating. His words got jumbled up and his emotion scale only went to sad and happy. Like?? More details?? And, of course, our plot was character-driven by Charlie. At this point, I gotta say I tried so hard to like Charlie but he was so messed up and I was upset with his peers for not helping him. All he had was this wallflower label. (Yes, I'm rolling my eyes right now) I have more to rant (oops) about like relationships and the open ending but it's all pretty spoiler-ish so I'll stop here.

TRIGGER WARNINGS:

- Depression 

- Physical/Sexual abuse 

- Suicide 

- Drugs/Alcohol/Smoking

- Psychological issues 

- Abortion

OVERALL

I'm generally upset with The Perks of Being a Wallflower. PERKS skimmed over so many details and important topics - that's what I really want to read about but nope. This book just made me more alarmed than anything. I can see why it's a classic and why people love PERKS. It is really nothing new for me. So many more YA books are diving into important topics and they're doing a much better job at research and balancing everything out.

After my rough time with the book, I didn't know what to expect with the movie...

Well, I gotta say, the movie was better than book. I KNOW!? I'm relieved that something worked out for me. I think seeing PERKS in film form was a better outlet for Charlie's story. Yes - things were cut but everything improved. The movie was like a nice, indie film. The atmosphere was more appropriate, where the book was pretty much black and white. The main cast are well known now but they all did a great job! Especially Emma Waston (Sam) and Ezra Miller (Patrick) - they really brought Sam and Patrick to life. The setting was good (THE TUNNEL SCENE WAS SUPER GOOD) and I loved the soundtrack. But the plot still had flaws.

I still struggled with the story. The movie dropped a lot of traumatizing scenes that we saw in the book with Charlie so the plot was more open. But we still had questionable actions and Charlie's unknown disorder. We also lost the letters (which I was glad because it wouldn't have worked well) and the close relationships we saw in the book. But we gained other relationships, more developed ones. I can't go much into this either because spoilers (I should have really made it to discussion oops) but I wasn't happy. And in the book, I had trouble with Charlie, but he was a more structured character in the movie. I mean, he had facial expressions!!

THIS MOVIE IS RATED PG-13 FOR:

- Sex and Nudity
- Violence and Gore
- Profanity
- Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking
- Frightening/Intense Scenes

(details)

OVERALL

So yeah. The PERKS movie worked out okay for me. Like I said before, the movie industry was a better outlet for Charlie's story. I do recommend this!

How do you feel about PERKS?? Do you like Ezra Miller (I LOVE HIM) or Emma Waston? Have a great day bookaholics!

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