Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

"So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them. But even if we don't have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there. We can still do things. And we can try to feel okay about them."

We can all find a little bit of ourselves in the protagonist Charlie, at first I didn't know if I’d be able to relate to Charlie, he is a fifteen year old boy who has had to deal with a lot of tragedy in his life but throughout this book he would say something about how he was feeling and I’d find myself remembering a time when I've felt that way too. Sometimes I’d find myself shocked at the topics Charlie would discuss as I thought them very mature for a fifteen year old boy, such as rape, sex and drugs but overall I didn't find that they were the themes I took away from it. 

“Just tell me how to be different in a way that makes sense.”

Charlie is a ‘wallflower’ trying to find his way in the world with the help of the people he meets, he is a social outcast who has always observed the world from the outside, which I found I could relate to. It isn’t until the end that we find out the real reasons behind Charlie’s behaviour and it’s a twist I found rather disturbing. 

This book will transcend time and it’s something that will stay with you long after you've finished reading it.

“So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.”