The Perks of being a Wallflower.

The Perks of being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky was a fairly random pick. I had seen some previews for the movie, and decided to check out the book. It turns out that it has been a popular book for a fair number of years. There is even a whole section at the end with topics for book club discussions and such. The book covers many topics including: teenaged drinking, drug use, smoking, sexuality, and mental health, as well as a teenager's view on abuse, drinking, both suicide and attempted suicide, and death within his family. A person could talk or write for a very long time about this book and get into some deep discussions. I won't write that much because it really needs the back and forth of discussion.

The book is written in the form of letters. A troubled teenaged boy (Charlie) is writing to an unknown person (seemingly the reader). It runs over the course of one school year (and a summer). Charlie has an extremely difficult transition from middle-school into high-school. His only good friend committed suicide shortly at the end of the school year before. Charlie is also struggling with the death of his Aunt (about 9 years earlier) with whom he had an interesting/ distressing relationship.

Charlie is quite introverted, and socially awkward, and naive, yet he speaks what he thinks (sort of like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory). In efforts to "participate in life" he becomes friends with a set of siblings, both of whom are a couple of years older than him. He gets accepted into their group of friends. With this group of friends, he goes through many stereotypical (or maybe just typical) teenage behaviors including exploring sexuality, drinking, and drugs.

This book really made me think about my high-school experience. While I was in it, I didn't think that my experience was out of the ordinary (for an introverted geek). When I entered collage I realized just how different my experience was.The thing about this book is that it captures the feelings of teenagers so well that you don't have to have experienced the situations to relate to them.

The Magician King

The Magician King by Lev Grossman is the sequel to the Magicians. It takes off where the last book finished. I didn't get quite as "into" this book as I did the Magicians, but I would read it again. Two characters (Quentin and Julia) head on on an adventure, and are then thrown in a very different direction. They have to then find their way back to the magical world. In the end it all makes sense, and they circle back to the original adventure.

The first book is Quentin's experience searching for magic. The timeline is fairly linear. The second book shows his friend Julia's very different search. The reader follows Julia's original journey to learn magic, and a current journey to return to the magical word with Quentin. I had a bit of trouble following the timeline, but this may have been made easier if I had read the book more quickly instead of over the course of a couple of months.

 I hear that the author is working on the third and final book in the series. This was announced over a year ago, and it will probably take a long while to be completed, but I am looking forward to it.

The Magicians

Every summer I go to my Church Campmeeting. This year I went to the bookstore in search of books which are OK to be seen reading amongst a large group of conservative Christians.  I came out with books, none of which fit the criteria. I took my old copy of Lord of the Rings to Campmeeting for the eightth year in a row, and set the new books others aside. It was September before I made it around to reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman.


I found The Magicians to be a interesting read. The main Character is collage aged, which seems to be a rarity, at least in the fantasy genre. It was refreshing to read about a character who was past the teenage angst stage, but also was not an adult, fully situated in their own life. It follows a young man who grew up reading a series of books which is clearly at least partly based on the Chronicles of Narnia. Instead of growing out of the series, he still reads it, and is slightly obsessed with them throughout his teenaged years. His experience could even be compared to reading a book. He goes from regular life, and is transported into a magical world (or three) where he makes friends, learns many skills, and goes on adventures. I connected with that, as I have also remained a fan of some of my favorite childhood series.

This book took many unexpected turns, and ended in a very different way than I thought that it would. It starts out with genius Quentin who is given, and takes, a chance to go to a magical university. While his school is different, much of his dorm and class life are relatable. The book deals with the post-grad "what now" period. The book them shifts gears and the characters use their education to take themselves to the world of Fillory which they had read about as children.

 While the characters don't share my same set of values and beliefs, and make many choices surrounding drugs and alcohol that I would not make, I find that these add to the story and to the characters personal growth. Quentin ponders his lifestyle decisions. and I think that the book accurately shows how a person's way of thinking changes as they get older and have more experience. 

This book was a great mix of Science fiction, and fantasy (mostly fantasy) two of my favorite genres. I was excited to find out that there is a sequel (which I have now read), but I didn't really have any idea where else the author could take the story. It was a complete story in itself.