through a different lens

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Genre: fiction, YA Challenge: Banned Books 2009

Review: This book has faced challenges in many schools and communities. Here is an interview with the author about some of the challenges.

My response: What's more important - a few things you don't agree with, or a powerful story about a teenage boy learning to deal the world around him? I know, what a silly question.

I'll be honest, I had a hard time with this book at first. I spent the first part of the book wondering whether Charlie was supposed to have emotional problems or whether the writing was just awkward. When it became clear that Charlie did have emotional problems, I started to wonder why nobody but me seemed to notice. But then comes the big reveal... And Chbosky does it so well that it made the whole rest of the book shift into focus, and I could see why this is such a powerful book for so many teenagers.