The Perks of Being a Wallflower; Stephen Chbosky [Simon & Schuster UK]

Right. So firstly, I have to admit that I didn’t read this book because of all the great comments I have received from customers, or sadly, my own wanting to. I am a self confessed Harry Potter fanatic so naturally, when I heard (or rather when I was stalking celebrity Twitter accounts) that Emma Watson is playing one of the main characters in the film adaptation of “The Perks of being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, I grabbed the first copy I saw on the book shelf. Lame and commercial? I’m ashamed to say; yes, but thrilled say that it resulted in the reading of a true beauty.

Our main character Charlie is an introverted teenager who falls into the category of social awkwardness, scratch that…  EXTREME social awkwardness. Amidst a working class family skimming the line of dysfunctional, and bearing the tragic suicide of his only friend Michael, Charlie enters his sophomore year with an apprehensive mind, a dark secret he himself is unaware of, and a lacking in confidence to make new friends.
All Charlie wants to do is understand the purpose of it all, to stumble through the new boundaries of teenage years the best he can, be the most he can be and try to experience cliché teenage experiences along the way…

…And so along come his guardian angels;

Taking an interest in what others can’t see, step siblings, seniors and complete extroverts, Sam and Patrick, take Charlie under their wings and teach him a valuable lesson; that life can be FUN.

With joy riding through tunnels, attending frequent showings of the Rocky Horror Show and partying with the most interesting people he has ever met, Charlie starts to feel that there’s finally somewhere in the world in which he can be himself, somewhere he doesn’t feel irrelevant, insufficient, strange, somewhere he belongs. But in an idealistic world, can everything stay perfect? Can things stay the way he wants them to stay? Or, will skeletons fall out of the closet uninvited, love stand in the way of friendship, and the natural course of life result in a shift of the wrong direction? One thing I promise you readers, is that you won’t be disappointed finding out.

If, like me, you are a self confessed book worm who devours shelf after shelf of popular fiction, you’ll know it is easy to forget the name of a character, points in the plot, and sometimes even the author or name of a book. Personally, ‘The Perks of being a Wallflower’ is one of handfuls of books (like Harry Potter I might add) that will have a lasting presence on my book world. Chbosky’s simplistic approach to writing this novel is what makes it so beautiful and easy to read, absolutely perfect for the summer holidays or to jump out of your hectic world and into that of someone else’s. I cannot recommend it enough.