Many of my regular readers will know that I adore and really hold a love for the 2012 coming-of-age film, ‘The Perks Of Being A Flower’. For me it embodied everything I wanted a film to be, but more than that it conveyed some great ideas and views, and in was just a lovely, beautiful film. If you look back at previous blogs you will find a couple devoted to just it and a review of it. It truly did affect me and I instantly fell in love with everything about it, no matter what you say you can not ignore this wonderful film.

However, before the film was made the book had already had a similar effect on many other people through the book it was adapted from. What I think makes the book such a great adaptation of the book is that the man who write, and thus understands the book more than anyone else, also wrote and directed the film version. This link being Stephen Chbosky, a man who instantly impressed me with Perks. He is clearly a great write, and now director, but the reason I wrote this blog isn’t just to praise the film even more, and really show how great a writer Chbosky is, but to tell you all about the book it was based on, of which I have just finished reading today after being completely hooked to it for the past week or so. If you thought the film was good and heart-wrenching, then read the book because the darkest turns of the film get even darker and the best bits get even brighter.

While reading the final parts again I even had the film’s soundtrack playing, I really just love this whole book and film idea. The book obviously extends the whole films idea as any book does, but it is the intrigue that it creates that I really loved. There are certain parts in the film that are never explained or shown, but after reading the book I know understand every emotion and every word. For instance you never find out what the card says that Charlie gives Sam in the film, but now after reading the book I know it, and this way of hiding the truth is a great way of not ruining the book while also making the film have a beautiful and almost secret feel to it. We then must get onto the darker side the book represents and shows to us. The use of the very horrible poem is key in this, showing the broken soul Charlie is, and the ending makes you remember how far he has come and how this poem no matter matters to him. This poem is disturbing and very dark, and really shows the bit too inquisitive nature Charlie has. This side to him is shown throughout the book, with him always asking questions to everyone, possibly showing how he doesn’t really understand his own past or life.

It is the way the book handles the very hard to manage topic of child abuse that is really startling and incredible. No matter how you try to show this topic it is never nice, and always saddening. But Chbosky doesn’t make it obvious in either version of Perks, instead he just shows enough for us to understand. Charlie clearly has deep-rooted issues that only the true ending, and Aunt Helen’s true love for him reveal. It is completely emotional and absolutely enthralling. If as you would expect, also heavily upsetting.

The key to the book though is the tale itself, as we literally appear to watch Charlie grow up through the letters he writes to us. This writing style teamed with the overall books messages is what really makes me love it, and really makes me love the film as well. The overall idea is a growing-of-age story of someone who doesn’t want to change or grow, instead just wanting to hide. The powerful part here is the part that his friends play, and it is a part we can all link to, and all understand. It is hugely emotional in this way, with it completely taking over me and making me realise the luck I have had, and the luck I do have to have such incredible friends.

So for this I thank you friends, I thank you Chbosky, I thank Charlie, and more than anything in the world, I thank you, ‘The Perks Of Being A Wallflower’.