The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Teenage – most dynamic and confusing phase of life.. It's believed that we build our lives in the 20s but it's the teens which builds us. The most common trait of being rebellious, the perpetual unrest, questioning authority and freedom, opening to a world beyond family and parents, shifting between thrills and fears, exploring new desires and pains, when facts become fiction and vice-versa, the milestones of 13, 16 and 18, era of first crush, first kiss, first date, first love and all the firsts we ever have, the age of coming-of-age.

A lot of books have been written on teenagers some with a fun theme, some as a mockery and some as pure naked truth. You know enough but never enough and what you do is driven more by your hormones rather than brain or heart. One can question the morals and elements in the book being a bad influence. But showing reality is not bad, it's what you choose to do with it that decides good or bad.

The author bares his soul and heart for the readers who can't help but delve into nostalgia. There is something for all of us to relate to, being the wall flower, or the popular football player, or the chic cheer  leader, or the bohemian babe, or the nerd front bencher, or the pseudo-intellectual, no character is what sees, they are what is unseen. There were so many moments and things that I loved in the story, the way the teacher gave books for Charlie to read, the way the sister and brother fight but say 'I Love you' to each other, the father who decides never to hit his children, the family you love but don't like, the family get-togethers and the drama, secrets in the family which everyone talks about only when drunk, the incidents of sheer stupidity which become legends, the quaint places and haunts that come alive in the night and disappear during the day, the love which you think you deserve, silly fights and lost friendships... and the final message…

"We don't get to choose where we came from, but we can choose where we go."

So you choose to be a wallflower or participate in life!!

The book had the most fascinating Reading list. I have read a few and am surely reading the others soon. Here it is:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Some excerpts & lines from the book to keepsake:

The thing is some girls think they can actually change guys. And what's funny is that if they actually did change them, they'd get bored. They'd have no challenge left. You just have to give girls some time to think of a new way of doing things, that's all. Some of them will figure it out here. Some later. Some never. I wouldn't worry about it too much."

It's just that sometimes people use thought to not participate in life. 

we accept the love we think we deserve.

Not everyone has a sob story, Charlie, and even if they do, it's no excuse.

You see things. You keep quiet about them. And you understand.

Do you enjoy holidays with your family? I don't mean your mom and dad family, but your uncle and aunt and cousin family. I am very interested and fascinated by how everyone loves each other, but no one really likes each other. 

Then again, maybe my whole family has been high, and we just don't tell each other these things.

Wish to Buy The Perks of Being a Wallflower