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The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Stephen Chbosky

Start date: November 1, 2018

Finish date: November 29, 2018

Discussion: Monthly Bonus Reads

Why we're reading this: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

November Bonus Read- National Child Mental Health Month…more
[close] The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

November Bonus Read- National Child Mental Health Month

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What Members Thought

Sep 16, 2016 Cecily Black rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

LOVED LOVED LOVED!!

Charlie reminded me a lot of pretty much every John Green Character that I have read in his books but there was something more honest and real about this story that really got me. I was crying by the end. It was a fast and easy read but deep and emotional, the kind that makes you reflect.
This book has been on my TBR shelf for a while along with the movie that was made a few years ago but didn't want to watch until I read the book. I think that is going to be one of the first ...more

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Apr 06, 2014 Valyssia Leigh rated it really liked it

Shelves: format-audio, lgbtqia, romance, young-adult, author-male, published-decade-1990s, book-club-queereaders, book-club-bb-other-challenges

My reaction to The Perks of Being a Wallflower was nearly the same as many of those who disliked it. I fell in with the group who recognized that there was something truly wrong with the protagonist, but where others looked to the characterization and found fault, I gave Stephen Chbosky the benefit of the doubt and assumed he was in control of his character. He was trying to demonstrate something. I started running through what I knew of people and arrived at a condition that fit all of the issu My reaction to The Perks of Being a Wallflower was nearly the same as many of those who disliked it. I fell in with the group who recognized that there was something truly wrong with the protagonist, but where others looked to the characterization and found fault, I gave Stephen Chbosky the benefit of the doubt and assumed he was in control of his character. He was trying to demonstrate something. I started running through what I knew of people and arrived at a condition that fit all of the issues about midway through the read.

Have you ever met a grown woman who spoke intentionally in a voice much higher pitched and softer volumed than it should be? I mean you knew instinctively that she was altering her voice to sound like a child's? That's going on with this character. His maturation was stunted (view spoiler) He suffers with a sort of 'Peter Pan syndrome' resulting from trauma that freezes some people in time.

For women the public perception of this is different. They're seen as having 'daddy issues,' or whatever (the 'soft-spoken, girlish voiced' aspect is practically a trope where prostitute characters are concerned), while young men who behave this way are perceived as 'pansies.' Both views are horrifically unkind.

The way the author goes about expressing the protagonist's problem isn't perfect, but it was good enough for me to intuit what it was, which amounts for quite a lot.

What I cared less for was the author tossing a group of sympathetic seniors into his freshman character's path. That just doesn't happen. It was total wish fulfillment. Young people who have been that badly screwed over by life don't attract the attention of peers 4 years their seniors, certainly not in high school where everything is about cliques. The seniors would've been slinging insults if they shown Charlie any attention at all. He was a weird kid. Weird kids are ostracized. That's how the world works.

I still gave the book four stars because the way the author attempted to illustrate the problem was interesting, and not poorly done. Even the inclusion of a set of peers -- some wise beyond their years -- had a sort of John Hughes-esque quality that spoke to the Gen Xer in me. ...more

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