Riley Whitford

          This six weeks I read "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky.  The copyright date for this was in 1999.  This is a fictional and young adult book.  This book is told by a freshman student named Charlie.  He describes his various experiences of his year through letters written to an anonymous person.  It is set in the early 1990's in a Pittsburgh's suburb.  Charlie is a unconventional thinker and at the beginning of the story is shy and unpopular.  This story starts off with Charlie writing letters about how he's scared of starting high school.  His one and only friend, Michael, committed suicide the year before.  He is soon introduced to Patrick, a gay senior.  Patrick then introduces him to Sam.  Charlie is instantly attracted to Sam.  Throughout the story all of them become great friends and do many things together.  Charlie also has many floods of emotions about the past.  The overall theme of this book would be "we accept the love we think we deserve."  This meaning that if you have a sense of self worth you will attract those who respect you.

          This story is told unlike many books.  The narrator, Charlie, writes letters about his feeling, friends, and life through a series of letters to an anonymous person.  During his letters he calls this person "friend".  He also always ends and starts his letters with " dear friend."  The intended audience is to young adults.  The general genre of this book is realistic fiction.  This was a made up story but many of the events that took place could happen in real life.  The author kept me interested by always having suspenseful ending to the letters.  The author also had some very shocking events that made me want to keep reading.  The author's style was the concept of the letter writing.  This was effective because it helped me understand Charlie better and the things he was going through.

          This book effected me because it helped me understand what a wallflower is.  It helped me experience the life of a boy who thought nothing ever good would happen.  This helped me realize that this could be the lives of people around me and I would never have known.  After reading this book it reminded me of the time their was a new girl at my school and I instantly went up and talked to her and because of that we are extremely good friends.

          "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" has definitely been one of my favorite book and I would recommend it very highly.  I think my favorite part about it was that it was told by letters.

Riley Whitford

12/14/13

RATING: **** 4/5