The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Out of the four books I read the past semester, the one I enjoyed the most was a short 224 page novel titled The Perks of Being a Wallflower written by Stephen Chbosky. The novel is set in the 1990s following an introverted student by the name of Charlie who is going through his freshman year of high school and all the challenges he faces. The book is set up as a series of letters that he writes throughout the year. He never sends them, but based off the first page we understand that he writes these letters to help himself get better since he is struggling with mental health. Throughout the book, Chbosky writes about the issue of mental health, sexual and drug abuse which helps bring light to what teenagers have come across in their lifetime. The book introduces all these issues that you would not expect to hear coming from a freshman in highschool, issues so intense that require trigger warnings.The book was adapted into a movie a few years prior and it does a decent job portraying the story considering the author directed the movie; however, if you want to truly feel the emotion behind, I suggest reading the book because it offers something the movie can't. This book does mention and talk about issues like suicide, sexual abuse, and drug abuse so if you do decide to read this book, this is a trigger warning. Even though the book is upsetting at times, I would highly, highly recommend this book if you are into mature YA books. It is a very short read considering it's only 224 pages long, but the storyline of it is just amazing.

-Marcela Perez