Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

25 reviews

thestorydoer's review

challenging emotional hopeful sad fast-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

3.25

Going into this book, I thought I was genuinely going to hate it. I personally feel the film is the best coming of age film Ive ever seen, and starting this book did not make me feel hopeful. 

For the first 70 pages of this book, the story moves at a breakneck pace, which was quite problematic because as this is an emotional story, it introduced very serious themes very quickly which didn't give me a lot of room to feel the gravity of the situation it was. 

However, after the first 70 pages, the book flips a switch. The pacing decelerates almost immediately into something which is still fast, but far more comfortable to read. The characters are given so much depth. The book suddenly becomes a very intelligent and important piece of YA Fiction. 

If the whole book were like those final 160 pages, this would've easily been a 4.5 star review. However, inconsistency is hard to look past and I didn't enjoy reading the first 70 pages which is a too large a portion of the book for me to look past it. 

The author wrote the screenplay for this book and adapted it into something holistically more consistent which I am glad for. I believe after the 70 pages, all the themes discussed were discussed maturely, naturally, and intelligently. Be careful for the trigger warnings though, as this book can be quite confronting at times.

Overall, a 4.5 star book dragged down by it's 1.5 star introduction due to very poor pacing. Holistically 3.25/5 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Pedophilia, and Rape

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Child death

lida_magg's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexual harassment

sarahsbookss's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Alcohol, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Grief, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

shio's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Child abuse

Minor: Suicide, Self harm, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Homophobia, Car accident, Alcohol, Racism, Child death, Pedophilia, Outing, and Domestic abuse

averywashere's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Rape, Racism, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Abortion, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Child death

capybooks's review

challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

I knew what to expect from The Perks of Being a Wallflower as I had seen the film a few times before reading the book. I’m in two minds about the novel. On the one hand, I like that it addresses difficult topics, but I didn’t get along with the writing style. The best moment was after his sister’s appointment, she and Charlie have a random bout of laughter - it was a lovely thing to happen during a not-so-lovely moment.  

P.S. every time Sam had any dialogue, I couldn’t get Emma Watson’s terrible American accent out of my head.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Child death, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Mental illness, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Car accident, Pregnancy, Hate crime, Racism, Incest, Abortion, and Bullying

Minor: Fatphobia

kateausten's review against another edition

hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Drug use, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Suicide, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, and Child death

Minor: Fatphobia, Racism, and Alcoholism

meringuekisses's review

dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Loved the epistolary writing and representation of trauma-blocking through characterisation. Even though the book was in first person, Charlie was still unaware of his own trauma even when putting it in writing.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Sexual content and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Child death

accio_gays's review against another edition

emotional 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Alcoholism, Car accident, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

samantha_is_reading's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.75

It was just ok…I didn’t get the hype. I feel like they tried to cram so many issues in it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Homophobia, Sexual content, Drug use, Mental illness, and Bullying

Moderate: Rape, Abortion, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Outing, Child death, and Death

Minor: Car accident, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual violence, Racism, and Fatphobia