herseytennis's Full Review: Stephen Chbosky - Perks of Being a Wallflower
After reading several reviews of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and finally going to Borders to buy it, I was extremely anxious to open it up and have a read. Many people have compared the book to The Catcher in the Rye, undoubtedly one of the greatest books ever written, and my favorite. This is the main reason I so sorely wanted to check out The Perks.
However, halfway through the book I was so disgusted I didn't think I could finish it. I did finish it, though, in a few hours of reading because of it's shortness and lack of depth.
Anyway, this book is ridiculous for a number of reasons. In particular, the book is meant to appeal to high schoolers. What's so unbelievably unreal about it is everything that could happen to anyone in high school happened to the main character, Charlie. Completely unrealistic.
The book did a terrible job of sparking any character-to-reader emotion, a necessary factor in any great book (Catcher). It was too difficult to be able to relate to Charlie; his experiences were over done, yet lacked significant detail. Particularly, the other characters are extremely one-dimensional. They're there and are said to be very close to Charlie, but we never learn anything about who they are or why they (seniors) so desperately want to hang out with Charlie who is a freshman??
Gah, I am mad at this book overall and wonder why people dare compare it to The Catcher in the Rye. If you are curious, read it yourself and form your own opinion. After all, it will only take you a day to breeze through it.
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