As much as I hate to say it, I haven’t had much time to read this past month. After going through two books in April and watching the time go by, somehow it’s already week three of May and well, welcome to another Bookworms post.

I’ve got one of my favorite books for you.

I did say I haven’t had much time to read, but lucky enough I’ve had enough to re-read a book that will always have a place in my heart. As mental health awareness month, it definitely gets into that among several other things, but I think one of my favorite parts about the book is that it truly takes a look at who we are as human beings— how we hurt and how we love, how we laugh and how we live… Though I understand it isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, this is one of the good ones.

The Perks of Being A Wallflower— Stephen Chbosky

Considering he both directed the movie and wrote the book, I see an incredible amount of talent in Chbosky; I still haven’t decided whether the story was better told on screen or through pages and well, I’ve gone through each multiple times.

What I really love about this narrative is how intimately you can feel each character, from Charlie and Sam to Candace and Patrick, all of them begin to feel real. I think that’s a really important aspect of novels, the characters can make or break the story. But even if you can’t fully relate to the experiences or identities of those in this book, they can still show you things in yourself that you never saw before.

Let’s talk about plot really quickly, this is your classic coming of age angsty teenage boy plot, as Charlie is a freshman in high school just trying to figure himself out, pushing through bullies along the way. But he’s not the only one. We meet Sam who is trying so hard to get into the college she wants while navigating bad relationships along the way, and then there’s Patrick who is dealing with his own sexuality and coming to terms with how that affects those around him. Maybe these ideas are specific to the characters, but all of it becomes universal to the rest of us. Add in the high school troupe and classic feeling of being right back in those halls, there you go. This is a book about life.

Oftentimes I seek literature to get out of my own existence for a while, especially when it comes to re-reading a book that I know will do the trick; this one, however, does so much more than that. This book builds a whole new world for you to fall into that maybe isn’t so far from the one you’re already in and manages to show you something new every time you thumb through its pages. It wakes you up.

There’s one quote in the book, a cheesy one that I’m sure people make fun of, that I like to think about when I think about love: “We accept the love we think we deserve.” Because we do, I know a lot of the times when we are treated badly or handed the short end of the stick, we wonder what we did to deserve it or maybe if that’s what we’ve earned. We accept the love we think we deserve, I guess it has to come from us to know we deserve more.

Like I said, this book is full of so many stories and lives that I think it is one anyone who loves books should read— I won’t hold it against you if you don’t like it. The novel is written in the form of letters, addressed to someone we don’t quite know or figure out, as Charlie works through his issues and discovers himself throughout the book. More than a story about people and about the different lives they live, this book can be a reminder to take care of ourselves in our relationships and to remember to look up every now and then.

You may be missing a moment that just might make you feel infinite.

If you don’t know what that means, go read the book and you will find out. As for the rest of it, take care of yourselves this week and I’ll see you all on Friday! Happy Tuesday everyone.