Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

669 reviews

sacculent's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book made me dissociate in a good way. The ending is terribly sad and yet hopeful and positive, and throughout it the whole book made me think differently about the world a little bit. The only thing holding back a 5 star is the writing style in a series of letters, it isnt bad necessarily but sorta made it hard to get in to in the beginning and sometimes i found it challenging for some reason. For now this is my favourite book, because it’s the last one I read. 💕

P.S: this book tackles a whole lot of traumatic events, sexual abuse, drug abuse, and others. Be aware of that.

Content Warnings

eveybrittin's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

At first I felt that Charlie was an unrealistic portrayal of a high schooler because I've never met someone who thought like him, and certainly nobody who approached social situations like he did. But I don't know everyone and the ending makes his behavior/thought processes make a little more sense. I do feel like the ending was rushed a bit compared to the rest of the book and it left me feeling kind of confused. This book definitely challenged my understanding of "normal"; drugs and sex were a way bigger part of this kid's life than I expected, and given Charlie's obvious mental health issues it upsets me that the other characters so ignorantly introduced him to substances that only made things worse. The author did a great job of creating realistic characters; I found that I could relate to each one in one way or another, or at least imagine them clearly in my head. I love a book that leads me feeling kind of thoughtful and dealigned at the end and the Perks of Being a Wallflower definitely accomplished that.

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lightthebeam's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

This book is a classic for a reason. The characters are endearing, I love the overarching premise of an outcast writing letters as the narrative pov. The cast felt complex their problems and dialogue all felt real. I read this in a few hours, it was a wonderful read. I love the way the characters talked to each other. The dialogue was an absolute strong point. I think my only complaints are it just felt like some points had an unnecessary amount of time devoted to them while other side plots didn’t end up being resolved. The ending felt very rushed to me. The epilogue helped a bit but in my mind that’s cheating.

Content Warnings