Last week, the senior book club met to discuss “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” written by Stephen Chbosky.

This time each member of the book club took a turn in explaining what they liked and disliked about the novel and what mark they wanted to give it out of 10. The common theme was one of surprised approval – many students hadn’t expected to enjoy the novel as much as they did. One of our book clubbers – Lily May Newman – even read it three times consecutively as she enjoyed it so much!

The novel is described as a ‘coming of age’ story and we all agreed that reading about Charlie’s life experiences over the course of two school years was eventful, dramatic and sometimes moving.

For a novel that contains so many difficult and morbid topics (including suicide, mental breakdowns and abusive family members) it was a surprisingly enjoyable and at times humorous read. Charlie was likeable and relatable, although Jae Hur found that he did not enjoy the epistolary style (the story was told through a series of letters) as much as he had other novels.

Overall, the average rating given by our 12 book clubbers was 8/10 – a very high approval rating indeed.

The next book, due to be discussed after Easter, is “The Kite Runner” by Khalid Hosseini.

Thank you to Annabel Head for baking some beautiful red velvet fairy cakes for the occasion!