The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
This is enjoyable book but I have a sneaking suspicion that-as much as I hate to admit it-I may be too old to read it! It tells the story of Charlie, a shy and sensitive fifteen year old boy who, having failed to connect with any of his peers so far, at last makes firm friends with a group of older indie kids at his school.
The usual high-jinks ensue—they get drunk, they take drugs, they have sex—and told through Charlie’s voice of discovering all of these things for the first time, it does have an endearing naïvety to it. But everything that happens is so much what one would expect from an angsty coming-of-age novel, that it sometimes feels a little contrived and clichéd. This is reinforced by Charlie’s often overly studied summations of events, which give the character a more adult insight into life than is really plausible. The guiding hand of the (adult) author thus comes through too strongly.
Having said that, the back story of Charlie’s mental illness and the reason for that illness does give the book a bit more of an edge and if I hadn’t read The Catcher in the Rye or Blake Nelson’s Girl (or if I hadn’t already been a teenager!), this would have been a very satisfying read indeed.
*** (3 stars out of 5)
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
I really enjoyed Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, another of the books in The Fairy Tale Series edited by Terri Windling. So I approached Briar Rose with considerable expectation. I was rewarded by a clever take on the Briar Rose fairy tale which read easily, and the twist in the tale is certainly well done. Jane Yolen’s depiction of the Prince exhibits some especially fine writing.
However, the characterisations were sometimes rather uniform—even stereotypical once the main character, Becca, goes to Poland-and at times it did seem to stick just a little too closely to the 'happily ever after' edict to be a completely satisfying novel for adults.
*** (3 stars out of 5)
This is enjoyable book but I have a sneaking suspicion that-as much as I hate to admit it-I may be too old to read it! It tells the story of Charlie, a shy and sensitive fifteen year old boy who, having failed to connect with any of his peers so far, at last makes firm friends with a group of older indie kids at his school.
The usual high-jinks ensue—they get drunk, they take drugs, they have sex—and told through Charlie’s voice of discovering all of these things for the first time, it does have an endearing naïvety to it. But everything that happens is so much what one would expect from an angsty coming-of-age novel, that it sometimes feels a little contrived and clichéd. This is reinforced by Charlie’s often overly studied summations of events, which give the character a more adult insight into life than is really plausible. The guiding hand of the (adult) author thus comes through too strongly.
Having said that, the back story of Charlie’s mental illness and the reason for that illness does give the book a bit more of an edge and if I hadn’t read The Catcher in the Rye or Blake Nelson’s Girl (or if I hadn’t already been a teenager!), this would have been a very satisfying read indeed.
*** (3 stars out of 5)
Briar Rose by Jane Yolen
I really enjoyed Tam Lin by Pamela Dean, another of the books in The Fairy Tale Series edited by Terri Windling. So I approached Briar Rose with considerable expectation. I was rewarded by a clever take on the Briar Rose fairy tale which read easily, and the twist in the tale is certainly well done. Jane Yolen’s depiction of the Prince exhibits some especially fine writing.
However, the characterisations were sometimes rather uniform—even stereotypical once the main character, Becca, goes to Poland-and at times it did seem to stick just a little too closely to the 'happily ever after' edict to be a completely satisfying novel for adults.
*** (3 stars out of 5)
