The Perks of Being a Wallflower in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Sep 29, 2008 Sarah left GR rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction

Buy this. Read it. Read it again. Yes, I know it's from MTV Books, but it's good, really. Trust me.

I went into this already suffering from "spoilers"... I'd gone to a reading by the author last Saturday. So while the ending wasn't a surprise, it was still very touching. Reminded me a lot of The boy who could make himself disappear, but I haven't read that in almost 20 years, so it's hard to compare.

During the Q&A after the reading, someone asked Steve (I shook his hand, so I can call him "Steve Buy this. Read it. Read it again. Yes, I know it's from MTV Books, but it's good, really. Trust me.

I went into this already suffering from "spoilers"... I'd gone to a reading by the author last Saturday. So while the ending wasn't a surprise, it was still very touching. Reminded me a lot of The boy who could make himself disappear, but I haven't read that in almost 20 years, so it's hard to compare.

During the Q&A after the reading, someone asked Steve (I shook his hand, so I can call him "Steve" now) if there's anything he'd change about the book, in hindsight. He cited two things: he'd make Charlie less sexually naive in the beginning, and he'd have him cry a whole lot less. I agree; Charlie does seem a lot younger than his 15 years, and the bouts of tears (even though Steve meant them as swift bursts rather than melodramatic crying jags) could turn off a more cynical reader.

One other story from the Q&A absolutely must be told... someone asked about the origins of the phrase "we accept the love we think we deserve" which appears early in the book. Steve looked blank for a few seconds (wouldn't you, if someone asked where you came up with a sentence that you wrote ten years ago?), but then brightened and told us that that sentence got the book published. Here's how:

Steve was accumulating an impressive stack of rejection letters for Wallflower. During this time, he had given the manuscript to his friend & mentor to read. This friend, Christopher, was a great guy who had a terrible track record with women. Not a bad guy, just never found the right match. Christopher had the manuscript with him on a flight to LA, and when he got to that sentence, it was like a revelation. When he landed, he went straight to see Heather, this woman he'd known and admired for a while but had never asked out. Armed with that sentence ("We accept the love we think we deserve"), he decided to take a chance. Fast forward, they're now married and have two daughters.

But that's not why the book got published.

The book was published because Christopher told Heather what inspired him, so then she read the book, and then called her friend Eduardo, who happened to work at MTV and was looking for first-time authors.

And that's why we can read The Perks of Being a Wallflower today. Because Steve knew Christopher, and Christopher loved Heather, and Heather knew Eduardo.

I think Charlie would be pleased.

...more

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Apr 30, 2009 Jess rated it it was ok

I liked this book much more when I was in middle school than I do now as a college student. - 1 May 2009

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Aug 02, 2010 Wendy E. rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya, heard-the-author-speak

Well. And just like one, this book is really rather..."deep." (Sorry for the cliche.) I'll be thinking of this one for awhile. I can see why kids love it. At least it ends with a postive lesson about how we can't always choose our families or our situations, but we can always choose where we go from there. ...more

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