The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
People, this came out in 1999!
That year I had a 7 year old, a 1 year old and was pregnant. That’s my excuse for not reading this the hot second that it came out. I have no excuses for why I didn’t read this at any other time during the next 13 years. No excuses, only regrets.
To put it as simply as possible: This is a brilliant book.
That’s all I have to say. You’ve all read it anyway. Right?
“You can’t just sit there and put everyone’s lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You just can’t. You have to do things.”
“I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands and don’t try to sleep with people even they could have. I need to know that these people exist.”
“She wasn’t bitter. She was sad, though. But it was a hopeful kind of sad. The kind of sad that just takes time. ”
“I didn’t feel like reading that night, so I went downstairs and watched a half-hour long commercial that advertised an exercise machine. They kept flashing a 1-800 number, so I called it. The woman who picked up the other end of the phone was named Michelle. And I told Michelle that I was a kid and did not need an exercise machine, but I hoped she was having a good night. That’s when Michelle hung up on me. And I didn’t mind a bit.”
The Relentless Reader 