No doubt you’ve heard of this book, if for no other reason than the recent movie starring Harry Potter’s Emma Watson. It’s about Charlie, a very shy, introverted boy who is also extremely bright and insightful. That would be the wallflower. Although I still don’t know what the perks of that are. Oh, well.

The book is written as a series of letters, all to one person who we are never introduced to. I tend not to like books written from that perspective. They seem a bit flat to me. You only get one perspective. That is even more true in this book because the letters quote almost no dialog.

I didn’t find the story believable for the most part. Charlie has no friends. Then he goes to a football game and happens to see this guy Patrick who’s in one of his classes. The guy recognizes him and invites him to sit with him and the girl who is with him. Not surprisingly, Charlie instantly gets a crush on her.

Sam and Patrick, both seniors, turn out to be step-siblings, but they have a relationship unlike any I’ve know of. They are always together, as if they were dating. They do date others, but before that, and even during, they’re still together most of the time. I don’t care how well you get along with a step-sibling, that’s just weird, and is one of the things I find unbelievable.

And the three become instant besties, and Sam and Patrick pull Charlie into their small group of friends. This is not the cool crowd, this is the just-missed-being-cool crowd. But why? There’s nothing off about them that would keep them from being the cool kids. But let’s let that go for now.

Because it is all told from Charlie’s perspective, we have no idea why this group likes him so much. All we’ve heard about him up to this point is that he’s an introverted nerd who doesn’t have any friends. Why is he all of a sudden popular, even if it is with the second-class kids? I just don’t think it usually works that way. Sam introduces Charlie to Mary Elizabeth, who is conveniently sort of part of the group, and they immediately become an “item.” Again, not usually how it works, especially with the first person you date. Everything just fits together to easily. It’s not real.

The book is well enough written, but it’s flat.  Even when Charlie talks about emotions he’s felt, he tells the story with no emotion. I will say, though, that the surprise ending is very effective. I’m not sure it’s worth the rest of the book, though. I do have to say that part of why I find it so unsatisfying may be because I was the introverted, unpopular kid in school, so I know it’s not very realistic. Even if it was a true story, which it is not, that still wouldn’t make it realistic.

There is one thing I really did like.  The book gives a very interesting – and from what I know, accurate – picture of how people see themselves so entirely differently than others do.

But I am probably very much in the minority here. I mean, the book was popular enough to generate a movie.