The Perks of Being A WallFlower: 3 Stars

 The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Charlie is a 15-year-old boy who begins to write anonymous letters to someone he heard was a good listener. He needs to vent to someone about his life and he chooses this tactic. Charlie is struggling with high school and his family. Like most kids of that age, Charlie is trying to find out who he is a where he belongs. He also has black outs and a stint in a facility he simply doesn't understand. With the help of new friends like Sam and Patrick and a teacher who sees his potential, Charlie is slowly figuring out life.

I was torn with this book. Initially, I didn't like it. This kid is supposed to be like a quiet, sensitive genius, but he writes like an 11-year-old and that really bugged me. Plus, the first half of the book is filled with sex. Not steamy, hot sex (which I am not a fan of reading anyway) but explanations of date rape, teenage masturbation, and more. I don't want to read about a 15-year-old kid jacking off. But about halfway through the book, I began to love Charlie. It took awhile but I finally started to understand him. But not only him, I also loved Sam and Patrick. The characters were real with real issues dealing with them in a real way.