Hey everyone! Hope you all had a good weekend.
Today I'm covering a book which has been rather hyped up for a while and in some places is even seen as a 'classic' that everyone should read. Behold- The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky.
Before I get completely started, I just want to apologise to anybody who does like this book, because I have a different opinion on it entirely- so if you disagree with me, please feel free to explain your own thoughts and opinions in the comments, as long as you do so nicely and aren't rude about it. Thanks!
First of all then, I'd like to point out that I haven't seen the film, but one of my friends assured me that is was really good, which is a part of why I read the book. Generally speaking, I find the films a little bit of a let down from the books- but I guess in this case, it may be the other way around. So if you've read the book and seen the film, I'd love to know which you thought was better!
As I said earlier, this book got a lot of press and hype and I'm trying to get my head around why. Sure, the book only took me 4 days to read, but wow it took so much effort. I actually skim-read from around 60% because I just got so bored.
Basically, each chapter of this novel was a 'letter' to Charlie's "friend", who I guess is the reader. In each letter, Charlie covers a little bit of his life- be it a week or a day- in a very vague amount of detail. He also writes as if he's a 10 year old, but he's not... He's 15/16. Sure, he's meant to be a "wallflower"- a person who is always in the background of social situations, and sure, he may have a learning disorder of some sorts, but that doesn't mean he has to write like a kid.
Keeping with the theme of Charlie's narration, there was such a lack of detail! Seriously, he'll be like "it's my favourite song/book" and then not explain why. Or at least he very rarely does. It gives me the feeling of wanting to approach Charlie and say "Who cares?" and then walk away again. (Yes, that's probably cruel, I know, I'm sorry. It really annoyed me.) Charlie also has a habit of crying... He's a 15/16 year old male, and sure, guys cry- probably a lot more often than we give them credit for- but even so, I felt like at some point on every few pages I read, "And then I started to cry." It drove me crazy, it really did.
I'm going to make this my last point now, before I make myself too annoyed. We're going back to the idea of there being a huge lack of detail, but this time, it's to do with the topics that were touched on in the book. So many 'touchy' subjects were grazed over within this book, and when I say grazed over, I literally mean that- they were always just a part of one chapter and then dropped, or even just a paragraph sometimes. We went through the issues of depression, abuse, sexuality, drugs/smoking, pregnancy and abortions and a few more, without actually going into the details of them that generally make a complex story believable, interesting and thrilling. Plus, at the end, another of these touchy subjects is dropped in- in the space of about a paragraph- in what I saw as an attempt to 'explain' things. But it didn't really work (or at least not for me). It made me feel like I was to be taken back to an English class and told to analyse every single detail of every single sentence.
So again, I'm sorry to any fans of this book, and to the author too. This book just didn't agree with me, at all- I found it so dull that I genuinely nearly gave up on it (and that takes a lot, for me to give up on a book). It just didn't grab my attention like other books do, nor did it meet up to my expectations with the poor detail and narration.
Alrighty! That felt good to get out of my system! Let me know what you thought of the book if you've read it- or even your opinion on the film if you want to! Just leave me a comment below- I love reading them! :)
See you all soon-
o7
Rachel
Today I'm covering a book which has been rather hyped up for a while and in some places is even seen as a 'classic' that everyone should read. Behold- The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky.
Before I get completely started, I just want to apologise to anybody who does like this book, because I have a different opinion on it entirely- so if you disagree with me, please feel free to explain your own thoughts and opinions in the comments, as long as you do so nicely and aren't rude about it. Thanks!
First of all then, I'd like to point out that I haven't seen the film, but one of my friends assured me that is was really good, which is a part of why I read the book. Generally speaking, I find the films a little bit of a let down from the books- but I guess in this case, it may be the other way around. So if you've read the book and seen the film, I'd love to know which you thought was better!
As I said earlier, this book got a lot of press and hype and I'm trying to get my head around why. Sure, the book only took me 4 days to read, but wow it took so much effort. I actually skim-read from around 60% because I just got so bored.
Basically, each chapter of this novel was a 'letter' to Charlie's "friend", who I guess is the reader. In each letter, Charlie covers a little bit of his life- be it a week or a day- in a very vague amount of detail. He also writes as if he's a 10 year old, but he's not... He's 15/16. Sure, he's meant to be a "wallflower"- a person who is always in the background of social situations, and sure, he may have a learning disorder of some sorts, but that doesn't mean he has to write like a kid.
Keeping with the theme of Charlie's narration, there was such a lack of detail! Seriously, he'll be like "it's my favourite song/book" and then not explain why. Or at least he very rarely does. It gives me the feeling of wanting to approach Charlie and say "Who cares?" and then walk away again. (Yes, that's probably cruel, I know, I'm sorry. It really annoyed me.) Charlie also has a habit of crying... He's a 15/16 year old male, and sure, guys cry- probably a lot more often than we give them credit for- but even so, I felt like at some point on every few pages I read, "And then I started to cry." It drove me crazy, it really did.
I'm going to make this my last point now, before I make myself too annoyed. We're going back to the idea of there being a huge lack of detail, but this time, it's to do with the topics that were touched on in the book. So many 'touchy' subjects were grazed over within this book, and when I say grazed over, I literally mean that- they were always just a part of one chapter and then dropped, or even just a paragraph sometimes. We went through the issues of depression, abuse, sexuality, drugs/smoking, pregnancy and abortions and a few more, without actually going into the details of them that generally make a complex story believable, interesting and thrilling. Plus, at the end, another of these touchy subjects is dropped in- in the space of about a paragraph- in what I saw as an attempt to 'explain' things. But it didn't really work (or at least not for me). It made me feel like I was to be taken back to an English class and told to analyse every single detail of every single sentence.
So again, I'm sorry to any fans of this book, and to the author too. This book just didn't agree with me, at all- I found it so dull that I genuinely nearly gave up on it (and that takes a lot, for me to give up on a book). It just didn't grab my attention like other books do, nor did it meet up to my expectations with the poor detail and narration.
Alrighty! That felt good to get out of my system! Let me know what you thought of the book if you've read it- or even your opinion on the film if you want to! Just leave me a comment below- I love reading them! :)
See you all soon-
o7
Rachel
You forgot to post your L.I.L. Pink nail for that challenge
ReplyDeleteIt's going up tomorrow at 8am hun :) But you have a good eye for noticing!
Delete