the perks of being me (A Book Review)

the perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

The Book

Book Cover 

I've been meaning to write a book review on this book since the beginning of January when I first read it, but I wanted to wait until the movie came out on iTunes. 

I just want to say... Wow. This is one of my favorite books in the world, right up there with Harry Potter. 

For me, there are three main reasons for this book's amazing-ness-

1) The Characters. The characters make the story. Don't they? The three main characters are Charlie, Sam, and Patrick "Nothing". In the beginning, Charlie is a quiet freshman with no friends except for an English teacher named Bill. Charlie has trouble fitting in, and no one really pays attention to him. Then he meets Sam and Patrick who are step siblings. They are wild and slightly insane, but very lovable. All of the characters are extremely life-like and so sad. 

2) The Psychology and Philosophy. the perks of being a wallflower seems like a really easy read (I read it in less than three days), but the book gets into some very deep topic like rape, suicide, drugs, drinking, and the question "what is considered socially acceptable?" One of my favorite parts was Patrick's story. Patrick is gay, and he is in love with a guy who pretends to be straight. His story shows the effects of society thinking that gays are socially unacceptable and "unnatural". the perks of being a wallflower isn't all bad though, Stephen Chbosky also discusses feeling "infinite", like nothing can stop you and time has stopped; true friendship and relationships, love, and when someone should or should not speak up. There are two quotes from the perks of being a wallflower that I love- "We accept the love we think we deserve" and "And in that moment, I swear we felt infinite." There was also one sentence that completely sums up the entire book- "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." 

3) How the story was told. The story is told through letters that Charlie writes to an anonymous Friend. In his first and last letters to the Friend, Charlie tells the reader that "she" said the Friend would understand. I always thought that the "she" might be Sam. If you've read the book, please tell me who you think "she" was. I really want to know. At first, I thought reading letters would bother me because I thought the who story would be a tell not show situation. Charlie (or rather, Stephen Chbosky) actually gets very descriptive and the story comes to life. If I was the person receiving Charlie's letters, I would feel very special. 

There is only one part that I didn't like about the book. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention. Throughout the book Charlie keeps mentioning his friendship with his Aunt Helen who died in a car crash. He also says that he's getting "bad" again, but Charlie never outright says what "bad" is and why it is happening. This "bad" thing makes up the majority of the last few letters, too. I was very confused and I didn't get what "bad" was until I watched the movie. I mean, I knew there was something wrong with Charlie mentally, I just wasn't sure what or why. 

Despite my inability to understand the "bad", I would still give perks of being a wallflower-

Since this was becoming a very long post, I'll probably review the movie next week.

Best of Writing, 

~Snowie

Why Write It?

The final installment in The Night Stalker Q&A series is brought to you by Banana (TM). Bananas are good!

Perhaps the most important thing to know about any story is why the author wrote it. Why did they put the time and the effort in to writing, editing, and publishing this particular story? What's so important about it?

As I was growing up, I always felt like there were more books for boys with manly, handsome action heroes and ditzy girls. The girls were princesses who wait in towers to be rescued and can hardly pick up a pillow. I was never that girl. Ever. I was the strongest girl in my grade and could beat all of the boys at arm wrestling. Perhaps that is why my imaginary friend and my first ever not stollen from another story character was a B.A. elf named Arya Poisonhold.

I'm still probably one of the strongest girls in my grade, but all of the boys can beat me at arm wrestling. Karma.

For much of my childhood, I longed for the strong, heroic female characters that I was missing. I felt out of place because to be pretty, you had to be Barbie. And Barbie wasn't strong or B.A.

When I started writing The Night Stalker, I think I was trying to fill the void of a strong, female role model. If you look at everything I've written up two about a year ago, you'll find that all of my main characters are strong, heroic females. The first book I wrote where the protagonist wasn't a strong female was Loving Amelia Perfect, which I wrote last summer. The two main characters are Amy, a shy girl who is secretly agnostic; and Ben, a social outcast with major family and relationship troubles. Ben was the first time one of my narrators was a guy.

Now, books are changing. More and more protagonists are heroic females like Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games and Tris from Divergent. Writers are saying that girls don't have to be skinny to be pretty. Any shape or size is beautiful. People don't have to be perfect, they just have to do the right thing and be strong. Don't let people push you around. Make your own decisions.

This is exactly what I'm trying to get through in The Night Stalker. I want to tell girls that they can be independent and make their own decisions, go after dreams, and kick fear in the butt. Gail isn't a perfect person. She's stubborn and very independent. Gail doesn't take orders well and will decide to go off and do her own thing in the blink of an eye. But, at the same time, she knows when to be smart, when to stay, and when to help people. She doesn't try to act stupid around guys, and she repeatedly doesn't do what they want her to do. Though there is romance in The Night Stalker, the romance isn't a huge part of the storyline. Gail is focussed on other things like finding her mother, defeating the Alliance, and deciding, as the Night Stalker, if what she is doing is right. I wanted to show that there is more to life than romance, and that you don't need someone to love you in order to be a good and amazing person.

That's all I have today. Take it away, Banana (TM)!

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Best of Writing!

~Snowie