Book/Movie Review: Perks of Being a Wallflower

A two for one post!! I read this book, Perks of Being a Wallflower, a few months back after beginning to see it pop up all over stores in anticipation of the movie release.  I originally came across this book back in high school.  It was a favorite of a friend, Ryan Dickerson.  Back in high school I was much more interested in Gossip Girl than anything that might be taken as serious literature.  I have noticed over the last few months that my taste is books is evolving and I decided to give this a shot...plus my friend Brianne had already downloaded in our Kindle app that she lets me freeload off.

Perks of Being a Wallflower is written by Stephen Chobsky.  It is a fairly short book under 200 pages I would say and its quick, easy read that keeps you intrigued.  It is set in the suburbs of Pittsburg in 1990s, think pro-Bill Clinton and tape deck era.  The story is about a high school freshman who is a bit of an outsider, a wallflower.  The book chronicles his quest to actively participate more in life.  However, quickly becomes apparent to the reader that Charlie suffers from some mental instability, the roots of which are not revealed until the very end.

This story provides a different view of high school than often found in Young Adult literature thanks to the narration from a very unique character.  This story also grapples with a lot of difficult issues including rape, molestation, abuse, drugs, and suicide.  It is certainly not a light read, but it is an easy one that you won't want to put down. 

The movie was released this past year and starred Emma Watson as a leading character.  This is probably the best film adaptation I've seen of a book.  It follows the plot of the book very closely and only veers in minor ways in the interest of keeping the movie under 5 hours.  The worst blunder is the failure of the film to develop Charlie's home life more, but I am willing to let that go in the interest of keeping the film to a reasonable length.  Perhaps the reason for this success has to do with the author of the book actually being the film director.  There is no one better than the original creator and imagineer of a story to bring it to life on film.

However, that being said I still pick the book.  Very rare is a movie better than a  book and in this case while the movie certainly does the book justice given inherent limitations, the book is still better So pick this book up for a rainy weekend and enjoy high school again through eyes of Charlie, the most unique high school freshman I've encountered.