I thought I'd share another one of my absolute favorites. I read this book quite recently really, maybe just over a year ago. And I loved it since the first page. Some books you need a couple of chapters to really get into, but this one wasn't one of them. It became a favorite from the very first sentence.
I am not going to get into the plot (I never really do), but the main character is Charlie and he is a freshman. He's a shy and introspective person and kind of sits on the outskirts of life. This is a story of his coming-of-age, getting to know people, getting out of his comfort zone and trying to navigate through the new experiences of high school.
Charlie is the most honest, real and believable character ever written. He has this sort of naive innocent aura around him, but at the same time he is so intelligent and perceptive. There isn't really an intense, engaging plot here, but the book is still a page-turner. You get sucked in and you don't want to get out. I think that's the most important quality of good books, making the form more important than the content. This book touches so many different topics and it deals with all of the problems a teenager could ever face, like drugs and death, or gay friends and even sexual assault.
I just loved this book. Charlie's fears and feelings are my own. I am a huge introvert who has dabbled into the problems of social anxiety, so I can totally relate and feel for him. This book is also really funny, at times even laugh-out-loud funny, because Charlie is awkward, but also kind of cute in his awkwardness.
Huge part of this book is music. I think it really adds to the feel of the book. For me personally, music is very important and it defines a lot of points in my life, so I really appreciated how music was incorporated into the book and how important it was for the characters. It was always in the background, adding to the atmosphere. And it was all great music, great artists and songs.
Also, every sentence in this book is so on point and nothing feels too much, it's all so well written.
This book got a lot of publicity when the movie came out, which was really good I think. Whatever makes people read this book is good enough. I think the movie was really great. I loved the actors, I think they did an amazing job. Obviously, the book is better, because some things had to be cut out of it for the movie, and for me really, there will never be a movie that is better than the book. And the movie seemed to have a more optimistic end to it, where as the book kind of left in on a melancholic note (that's the way I saw it, but some people who read the book and have seen the movie didn't agree with me).
Anyway, I think every teenager, boy or girl, should read this book. Charlie isn't this perfect character that you can look up to, but that's just the thing. No one ever is. And Charlie, even though he faced all kinds of problems, was still trying to make everything right and to make sense out of things. Which is all you can really hope for. I think this book is a MUST read.
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