The Perks of Reading
There’s magic in reading, I strongly believe in that. And there’s even more magic when a story affects you in ways that you don’t expect.
I had seen the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower some years ago and although I liked it back then, I have to admit that I didn’t fully get into it. But last weekend it showed up on my Netflix homepage so I decided to watch it again. What happened was something that could be seen as strange, because it’s not too often that you rewatch a movie that you didn’t love and end up loving it. So I loved the movie this time and I got very involved in it.
I didn’t stop there though. The next day I decided to read the book and I read it all in an afternoon. This was one of those times in which you just can’t stop reading and every single page merges with your mind and heart. It could have been a bad decision to read the book as soon as I watched its adaptation, because more than often the adaptations don’t make much justice to its books and even if they do, we tend to see the bad things in the screen comparing them to the pages and not actually recognize the good ones. Again, this wasn’t the case.
Reading this book was one hell of an experience for me. The book isn’t probably targeted to someone like me, but the fact that it’s a YA novel doesn’t mean anything if the story is worth it. What I found most interesting about this book were 3 things:
- It is written from the point of view of a[n straight] young boy. And I say this caught my attention because usually when I am looking for something to read, I come across recommendations of [YA] books written from the point of view of a young woman (which I have nothing against, I am just saying it is the trend) and if I ever come across one written from a guy’s point of view, it is probably a homosexual character (which again, I have nothing against, it’s just the trend in this genre). So it was refreshing to see this kind of book and be able to identify more with its main character.
- This brings me to the second element that caught my attention and which is probably the most important for me, and the one that truly made me identify with Charlie (the main character): the fact that this book deals with depression, identity issues, introvert people, overthinking, friendship, and more topics that I go through in my daily life. Plus, from a guy’s point of view like me. This is invaluable, and I wish more people did something like this whether in books or movies/series.
- The time is set a lot of years ago and yet the story doesn’t rely on elements that are unique to that time. It is a story that can be read and adapted in any time and it will still be relevant because of its characters and topics.
This is a book that I will protect in my heart forever, because it also taught me a lot of things, not only in a story sense but also regarding adaptations from paper to the big screen.
If you are looking for a book that makes you reflect on your own life and the people around you, this is a no brainer. Even if you don’t like YA novels, this isn’t the typical one and for sure is written for people of all ages, whether to feel identified or understand what many people go through; but also and most importantly to give hope.
