Recently I read the Perks of Being a Wallflower. This book was an awesome rendition of the story of a teenager. This teenager was on the outside, or a wallflower. He does not partake in any social groups or cliques, but he joins a group of misfits where he fits. The story follows his life in his freshman year of high school. Now one of my favorite parts of the book was the way the book was written. This book is written in a series of letters. You know who writes the letters, but they are written to a mysterious person who does not know the main character. In every letter he writes something about what happened to him in the past days and weeks. As the story goes on the letters get more dense and scary as the main character, Charlie, starts using drugs and alcohol. Through these letters the reader follows the progression of Charlie's character. You see an innocent freshman turn into something else. I enjoyed how I could see, and sort of feel, his change and his emotions. This format is a fresh change from the normal chapters in a novel. It was interesting and kept me reading.
My second favorite part of this novel was of course the ending. Which for me is always the best part. This ending was something I had never expected. When I started the book, I thought that he was writing to his future wife. Then, towards the middle of the book I began to believe he was writing to someone random. The ending really shocked me. Towards the end of the novel Charlie has a nervous breakdown and a really bad incident with drugs. I still don't fully understand the ending completely. So if anyone reading this understands completely what the author intended the ending to mean please comment! I took the ending to mean that he was in a mental institution because of some breakdown, and he was writing this story. Now I take it as he was writing to himself and the story was made up. But, I also could see how he might be writing these letters to a therapist who wants him to recollect what happened to him. Basically I am totally confused by this story, but I love it. I read it in a few days and could not put it down. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting book with some mature content.
