The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

 The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky-213 pages

I have seen the film a few times, so I wanted to finally read the book for this month's challenge and compare them. I like the film slightly better than the book mostly because the main characters don't smoke in the film, but they're like chainsmokers in the book (including Charlie who's underage at 16). However, both are good and it's cool (and unusual) that Stephen Chbosky wrote the screenplay and directed the film. Because of this, many of the details from the novel are carried over into the movie. Charlie is beginning his freshman year of high school and wants to make friends. Michael, his friend in middle school, committed suicide so he doesn't really have any friends to carry over into high school. He meets Patrick and Sam, who are step siblings, at a football game and they become good friends throughout the school year. However, Patrick and Sam (and Alice and Mary Elizabeth) are all seniors, so when they leave Charlie won't have friends in high school again. I don't want to give away too much of the story, but basically it's a story about Charlie and him making friends and "participating" in life.