2011 Book-related Art: The Book Thief, Thirteen Reasons Why, Paper Towns, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Sandman Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Sputnik Sweetheart. More here.

Looking forward to another year of books and doodles! :)

REVIEW
Title: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author: Stephen Chbosky
Genre: Young Adult
My Rating: ★★★★ (3.8 stars)

____

Dear friend,

I just finished rereading Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower last week, and I’m glad to say that my opinion on it from the first time I read it didn’t change—it’s still the 90’s classic bildungsroman that has always  tugged at my heartstrings.

Trudging in the footsteps of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, the book revolves around Charlie, a teenage freshman in 1991. For me he’s a walking contradiction, a different kind of antihero who has an archetypal martyr beneath his façade. Timid, intelligent, insightful yet socially awkward, Charlie often chooses to sit on the sidelines and watch the world do its complicated dance. But one thing he realizes throughout his first year in high school is that although the vantage point from the fringes is delightfully unique, there is nothing quite like getting a little dizzy while spinning in the dance floor with his friends.

In a nutshell, it’s all about learning the dips, the skips, and the twirls of a dance called “growing up.”

The foundation of the book’s main strength is in the format. Charlie tells his story in a collection of letters as intimate as diary entries, which he sends to an anonymous recipient he calls a “friend”. It’s a blatant technique Chbosky used so he could easily draw the readers into Charlie’s world and make them feel like they’re an official part of it. When Chbosky finished laying out the bricks of the foundation, he cements it by choosing a compelling and extremely relatable narrator.  The simple combination is effective, because more than once I felt a subtle urge to actually write back to Charlie. I felt like I belong in his world, an anonymous confidante. The book’s main goal, which is to be able to form a link with the readers, is achieved.

The plain writing style lies in stark contrast with the complex and heavy themes the book deals with. Drugs, teenage pregnancy, sexuality, depression, suicide, domestic violence—you name it, Perks has it. At first I thought Chbosky is trying to cram every tough issue that most teens face up to this day, but I soon loosened up when the author realistically tackles each, especially the ones that resonate in Charlie’s psyche. To balance the theme-beam, Charlie’s light and somewhat peculiar voice peppers the narration with the right amount of humor.

I became drawn to Charlie’s fascinating world for a time, magnetized by the family issues, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the music strewn throughout the story (I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs, but his circle of friends resemble mine in some aspects). Once again, as in most young adult books, the complexity of any kind of relationship is touched. I like how Chbosky executed it with sheer simplicity. The ‘twist’ at the end was a loud epiphany bomb for both Charlie and the reader.

While Perks may not be the best coming-of-age book that I’ve read, it certainly earned its special space in my shelf and in my heart. You may want to try it too!

Love always,

Airiz

(Yes that’s Emma Watson reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower.)

What I’m most excited to see in the movie adaptation:

1. The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Emma Watson playing Sam (Perks character) who is playing Janet Weiss (TRHPS character). And Ezra Miller playing Patrick who is playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter. And Logan Lerman playing Charlie who is playing Rocky. And so and so forth. The real treat is, we get to see bits of TRHPS brought to life by this generation’s most talented young actors. I’m excited!
2. The I-Swear-We-Were-Infinite Moments. I’ve said this before and I’ll say this again: books are my friends but not my only friends. In that aspect I guess I can relate so much to Charlie. One of my sturdiest links to him is his road-trip moments with his friends—scenes where either Sam or Charlie is standing on the back of the speeding pick-up truck, with the perfect song playing in the background. Stephen Chbosky chose the right words for the feeling: infinite. I really wish they can translate the feeling well into the screen.
3. The Flashbacks. In the book, Charlie has a way of presenting his early memories with extraordinary vividness by just using the simplest words. I want to see how they’ll work that out in the movie. I hope they can bring the little ‘twist’ at the end with a loud bang.
4. The Soundtrack. More like hear. Perhaps they’ll just hand-pick a few tracks from Charlie’s many mixed tapes. I wish they choose the majority from the mix Charlie made for Patrick. Tasteful choice of songs!
5. Charlie (Logan Lerman) kissing half the cast. Ooooops sorry! Rabid Fangirl Slip! Pwahahaha.
6. Sam and Patrick’s crazy dance. As seen in this video. You guys, who can’t get excited by this??

REREADS. I know I still have a tall stack of to-reads, but in celebration of the banned books’ week, I decided to reacquaint myself with Holden Caulfield. :p After that, I think I’ll check on Charlie again. :p

BOOK HAUL (September-October reads)
Currently Reading, To-Read, and To-Reread 

• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. Status: Currently Reading. I’m only a couple of chapters in, and so far I’m liking it. It’s like a collection of interconnected short stories, mostly about an ex-punk rocker/ record executive and his kleptomaniac secretary. Music galore on every page! I’ve been meaning to read this ever since I got to Good Reads. This book won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. 
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Status: To-read. Set in futuristic America, this is a dystopian novel where the masses are hedonistic and critical thinking through reading is outlawed (thanks, Wiki). The title is said to refer to the temperature at which book paper combusts.
• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. Status: To-read. About an autistic fifteen-year-old and a murder mystery concerning his neighbor’s poodle. Everyone’s got a nerd boner for this. I got to find out why.
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Status: To-read. First in the Swedish crime series called the “Millennium Trilogy,” this novel concerns the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, and how her uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires a journalist to investigate, who in turn is helped by a tattooed punk prodigy. 
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Status: To-reread. An epistolary coming-of-age novel centering on an introvert kid who calls himself Charlie. I’ve read this on e-book format last year, and I was more than happy to stumble upon a copy of it on Book Sale. This one reads like a direct descendant of J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. I just felt like reading it again sans the terrible eye pain caused by the computer screen. :P
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Status: To-read. A semi-autobiographical novel concerning a young, talented woman’s descent into mental illness while she is working as an intern for a magazine in 1950s New York City.
• Wide Awake by David Levithan. Status: To-read. Set in futuristic America where a gay Jewish president is elected. It’s about time I read something…political by Levithan! :P
• Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. Status: To-read. It’s been a while since I last read something by this awesome author! Based on the reviews I’ve heard, it is apparent that Murakami’s three L’s are present in this novel—love, loss, loneliness. This time, though, it looks like there’s an additional L: lesbianism.
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Status: To-reread. What do you mean I just read this? Leave me alone, this is how I roll.
• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Status: To-reread. It tells the story of unlikely friendship between two boys: Amir, son of a rich Afghan businessman, and Hassan, son of his father’s servant. More when I finally make a review for this! :P
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Status: to-read. It’s about nine-year-old Oskar Schell and his search for the matching lock of the key that belongs to his father, who died in the World Trade Center in the morning of September 11. I wanted to read Foer’s Everything is Illuminated first, but I can’t find it. :( So yeah, this is going to be my first Foer read.
• Luna by Julie Anne Peters. Status: To-read; lent by my friend Venus. “Yeah, I loved her. I couldn’t help it. She was my brother.” About a transsexual boy named Liam, who changes his name to Luna when the sun sets.
• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Status: To-read. “On an island off the coast of Wales, there was once a home for peculiar children, and one of the children who lived there was Jacob’s grandfather. He told Jacob stories about the children—the girl who could fly, the boy who had bees living inside him, the brother and sister who could lift boulders…” Honestly, it sounds like Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters from X-Men. But I’m going to give this a try because The John Green recommended it. :)
• Delirium by Lauren Oliver. A dystopian young adult novel where love is considered a fatal disease (amor deliria nervosa). Don’t mind me, I just need something to fill my Hunger Games void. :P
• Hanging Out with the Dream King: Conversations with Neil Gaiman and his Collaborators. Status: To-read; again lent by my friend Venus. A collection of interviews with Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, Dave McKean, Tori Amos(!), Colleen Doran, and many more. A Gaiman fan must-have. :)
• Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. Status: To-reread. Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The premise is that Carroll distorted the true events that happened in Wonderland, making its history nothing but a nonsensical book for kids. The real events are told in this book. (Not in the picture because my friend is currently reading it lol) 

Have any of you read some of my to-read books? What should I expect from them?