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Dec 09, 2011

Tatiana rated it:

There may be a book in the world that can address, just within very few pages, suicide, molestation, domestic abuse, homosexuality, drug use, mental issues, first sexual experiences, rape, abortion, etc., and not sound like a Lifetime movie, but The Perks of Being a Wallflower is not an example of that.

For me, the straw that broke the camel's back was when I realized that, to add to all of the above mentioned melodrama, the narrator was either emotionally or mentally handicapped. It More...

44 comments like (63 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2012

Reynje rated it:

If, like me, you ~~lurk on~~ frequent tumblr, you will have realised that there is only so far you can scroll before you hit something like this:

Stephen Chbosky’s epistolary novel has something of a cult following, and the quotes that litter the internet seem almost anthemic, given the passion with which they are re-blogged, quoted, slapped across artfully light-leaked photographs and “liked”.

A generation appears to have adopted The Perks of Being a Wallflower, a More...

67 comments like (46 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2012

Liz rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like (15 people liked it)

Jun 06, 2008

Meredith rated it:

Resounding accuracy of the voice of a boy teetering on the brink of adulthood, goodreads? Um yeah, maybe if all kids teetering on the brink of adulthood made you question if they were autistic and spent the majority of their free time reading the classics and going to therapy. Don't get me wrong. This book is good. You want to find out what the deal is with the main character for the entire book and at the end, you eventually get a pretty damn good idea. But for the love, this is not the Ca More...

36 comments like (96 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Rachel rated it:

As much as people say it, this really is one of my favorite books of all time. MTV promoted it, it got a lot of press, so many people shun it and say it is overrated. I disagree.

I didn't read this book until last year, when I turned 21. My boyfriend owned it, it seemed like a quick read, and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Main character Charlie is loveable from the first sentence out of his mouth. There are endless quoteable quotes in this book that had me fo More...

6 comments like (150 people liked it)

Jan 03, 2008

Stephanie rated it:

This book is beautiful. It is a classic teenager read. I have probably read this book a million times and it never gets old. I love how honest and deep Charlie is. He will get you thinking about the good things and what really matters in life. I am inspired whenever I read this book and I hope you can get as much out of it as I do each and every time.
This is was my book report for school. Hope it helps!

“We are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know m More...

1 comment like (71 people liked it)

Mar 21, 2010

Christophernies rated it:

Mindless crap that validates everyone who described themselves as "misunderstood" in high school. Mary-Sued to all hell, a onanistic and incomprehensible exploration of the tragic state of the "shy kid."

Idiocy.

17 comments like (53 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2012

Shirley rated it:

"And in that moment, I swear we were infinite." URGH! I hate that quote! It smacks of a forced whimsy and I bet you that nobody actually knows what it means because they don't want to be outed as a non-cool kid, so everyone pretends that it's deep instead of perhaps the matter of the truth - that it probably doesn't make any sense and therefore means squat all.

This quote just makes me think of this: The Infinite Cat Project. But that type of infinity is better because it a) More...

45 comments like (30 people liked it)

Dec 01, 2011

Isamlq rated it:

"And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."

The Perks of Being a Wallflower doesn’t tackle anything new… drugs, music, sexuality etc have all been dealt with in other books, this book just sets itself apart for me because the protagonist while being absolutely honest is also absolutely naïve. I have no real reason to like him. Other than his being… absolutely honest. BUT it is was also this honesty that had me doubting his authenticity.

The book is written i More...

12 comments like (11 people liked it)

Sep 29, 2007

Paige rated it:

It is possible that the author of this book sat down and thought to himself, "Alright, I have this kid - now let me try to put him through every adolescent situation that a suburban white teen faces." Wasn't this book promoted by MTV? It certainly does have a commercial flakiness - especially with the plot converting well into an afternoon TV special. If it's not sex, it's the drinking or the drugs or the insecurities. Perhaps reading this book is not recommended for those who have More...

0 comments like (29 people liked it)

Dec 07, 2011

Annalisa rated it:

I almost didn't finish this book. The main character was so hard to figure out. He was supposed to be so intelligent but he was so naive. I get being book smart but dumb streetwise, but it was basic social and life knowledge that he didn't get. There were also a couple of scenes that I didn't think were believable. I almost put the book down <spoiler>at the rape scene. There is no way a guy and his girlfriend would go that far with a middle schooler staring at them, much more if it weren't More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Sep 08, 2011

K.D. rated it:

The Perks of Being a Wallflower: A. Free live sex shows but you are not allowed to tell anyone. B. Free LSD mixed in a brownie. C. Free to make out with girls who take fancy on you because you seem to be harmless. D. Free books because you are autistic hence you can finish a challenging book to read like Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” in 12 days and your English teacher wants to challenge you by giving you more and more books to read. E. All of the above. F. None of the above.

I read More...

13 comments like (44 people liked it)

Jul 06, 2009

Kim rated it:

There are certain nuggets… certain lines or sentiments that I stockpile when I read.. I find them on pieces of paper towels or on the back of notebooks, I’ve stopped writing them on my arms since it grosses my husband out…. but they are still there, those little lines of self therapy that I rely on to further my mental wellness and to avoid those damn co-pays.

So, I’m reading yet another YA book about a teen with issues that seem so prevalent these days, I mean, really, what teen do More...

11 comments like (46 people liked it)

Nov 28, 2011

Chiara rated it:

Un ragazzo in guanti di vetro

Non so da dove mi venga quest’espressione. Temo che non esista, e non sono neanche troppo fiera di averla inventata. Però mi sembrava una definizione sintetica di ciò che penso di questo romanzo.
Non è un genere di lettura che mi è abituale. La cosa più simile che mi viene in mente è Speak, di Laurie Halse Anderson, che non mi era affatto dispiaciuto, anche se non so quale sia l’opinione degli “esperti del settore” a riguardo. Dunque, posto c More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 13, 2011

Tancredi rated it:

"Charlie, ognuno di noi accetta l'amore che pensa di meritare."

Posso dire con certezza quasi assoluta, e con una buona dose di soddisfazione, che questo è uno dei più riusciti romanzi adolescenziali. Adolescenziali, lo ripeto, lo ribadisco, perché sia chiaro a tutti che ci si trova davanti ad un romanzo un po' di genere, un bildungsroman fortemente americano, stretto in uno spazio-tempo codificato (l'anno scolastico, la famiglia, la scuola, e poco altro). Eppure, è un romanzo More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Oct 25, 2011

Marco rated it:

Mamma mia.

Come descrivere un libro del genere? Cosa dire su quella che è appena diventata una delle mie letture preferite? Finalmente un bel libro sull'adolescenza e su come un ragazzo si sente in questo periodo della sua vita. Niente a che vedere con tutte quelle stronzate alla 'bianca come il latte, rossa come il sangue', dove viene trattato malissimo un argomento delicato e dove il protagonista si comporta solo come un adolescente si comporta esteriormente, ovvero omologandosi More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 26, 2007

Topher rated it:

my life was nothing like his. my life was everything like his.

maybe i was in the right mood today, maybe it just is that damn good. it was everything i remember feeling from high school, from reading catcher in the rye and a separate peace, from driving around down to city line avenue and wandering around hotel hallways looking for room service trays so we could move the spoons, from not understanding how i felt about my best friend at the time, deliberately failing spelling quizzes More...

0 comments like (36 people liked it)

May 09, 2008

K rated it:

Chbosky makes no secret that his book's riffing off of Catcher in the Rye, but for once this is sweet rather than obnoxious, at least I thought. A happier, more hopeful, and more sociable version of Catcher, if here can be such a thing, and much more obviously funny. Charlie's stilted, innocent voice reminded me more of narrator Haddon's Curious incident of the Dog in the Night-time than Holden Caulfield. Laughed a lot.

My favorite quotes:

"[My sister] is a part More...

2 comments like (25 people liked it)

Feb 25, 2008

Jenn rated it:

Reading this book is kind of like having a too-long conversation at a dull party with one of those people who won't talk about anything but books and bands and movies that everyone and their mom just loves. "Do you like the Smiths?? Have you hear that song Asleep?? Have you heard of this book Catcher in the Rye? Do you make MIX TAPES? Do you struggle with your sexual and social identity? ME TOO?!"
If you are into that sort of thing, feel free. Or you could just go on youtube and w More...

5 comments like (33 people liked it)

Aug 02, 2011

Lucy rated it:

When I began reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower I felt it was immediately evident there was something wrong with Charlie, aside from his complacence. Charlie is supposedly brighter than average and excels in English. Reading his letters, however, made me feel he was actually slow. Charlie's English teacher tells him he's the smartest person he's ever known -- not just a student, but as a person. I didn't buy it for a second. The letters Charlie write are filled with the most simple language More...

0 comments like (14 people liked it)

Mar 05, 2008

Kelsey rated it:

This is one of my favorite books of all time. It is my staff rec at work, and I don't want to change it. There are so many things that I love about this book, and here are a couple quotes from it that I love. Actually, many quotes from it that I love. And believe me, I have a ton more. I would sit here and recite the whole book if I could.

"Do you always think this much, Charlie?" "Is that bad?" "Not necessarily. It's just that sometimes people use thought to More...

0 comments like (21 people liked it)

Jun 14, 2011

Daniel rated it:

Bloody awful.

Imagine this: The Catcher In The Rye was fucked rough by A Million Little Pieces. The zygote's DNA was then re-spliced with 1980's panic journalism and bombarded with x-rays for six months. It was then delivered premature on a bloody altar beneath a full moon and methodically, repeatedly dropped on its head by Chuck Palahniuk.

Any plot whose central premise is an amnesia of the daytime TV variety belongs in a very special category. For me that category is More...

7 comments like (13 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2010

Lisa rated it:

Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the moving portrayal of 15 year old Charlie, a boy who, through a series of letters addressed to an anonymous “friend”, relates a broad series of events that affect his life throughout his 9th grade school year.

The letters begin in August of 1991, just prior to the start of Charlie’s freshman year. Charlie had lost his friend, Michael, to suicide the previous spring and is looking for an outlet to express his feelings about his lo More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Aug 18, 2011

Charles rated it:

It’s like writing a diary, but writing a diary alone is inadequate if we wish to be understood by people around us fully. But it is through literature that we can obtain to be understood by these intolerable critics. The novel ‘The Perk’s of being a Wallflower’ is another juvenile narration who ventures the reality of going through the complexity of adulthood. Charlie here is a special one, surrounded by people who loves and heeds about him so much. The author makes the whole book very realisti More...

16 comments like (5 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2008

Chris rated it:

I was skeptical when I first started this book, but Chbosky's spot on grasp of teenage identity makes it a perfect coming of age book for any teenager. I do think "Wallflower" would be best appreciated by high schoolers, as the book is too earnest and angst-ridden to be a perfect read for anyone older than teens. I wish I would have had this back in high school. Even so, I really enjoyed reading it as an adult, and it constantly triggered waves of bitter-sweet nostalgia. Not so muc More...

4 comments like (8 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2008

Michelle rated it:

"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."

I had been reluctant to pick up this book after seeing it on so many favorites lists in the past few years. Typically, that wouldn't be the case. For some reason, I just always doubted that it would live up to the hype. After reading the above on the second page, I knew I'd been wrong to avoid it. It might not end up being in my Top 5, but I was ho More...

1 comment like (10 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2008

Valerie rated it:

At first I was a little put off by Charlie, the main character in this novel. Written in letter form (to an unknown person), we learn many of the intimate details of his 15-year-old life... at one point he ask us, the reader, if we "know what masturbation is?" almost as if he just discovered it that very second and needed to spread the word. He also goes to a party where he turns down the opportunity to smoke a joint, but then innocently accepts a "brownie" a little later the More...

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

Nov 24, 2010

caroline rated it:

I remember reading this book and feeling like I should have purchased it than reading it for free from the library.

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Aug 28, 2008

Juushika rated it:

Charlie is about to start high school, and so he begins to send letters to an anonymous stranger as an outlet for his fears. His letters continue through the school year, recording his friendships, high school life, mental issues, and ongoing battle to emerge from passivity and actively engage with the world. Although heavy-handed in its themes and discussing a surfeit of difficult issues from suicide to drug use to homosexuality, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is remarkably good. Realistic cha More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 10, 2008

Kelley added it

Dredging the archives of my old YA blog--from back in the day when I was a YA para-librarian. Awesome!

Have you ever stood by and watched the world whirl past, brushing up close to the action but never actually participating? Like, for instance, when you’re at a party and you just sit on the couch, watching everyone’s interactions, satisfied being on the sidelines? A wallflower, if you will? For some people, staying in a corner by themselves and just living vicariously is enough More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

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