The Perks of Being a Wallflower

"Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chobsky, my next choice, takes that idea on. Because here is someone with post traumatic stress disorder which we don’t find out until the end. It touches on the good old well-traversed themes of relationships, arguments and sexuality but you get this killer at the end… the big reveal. That really hit home for me. Because I was involved in a historic sex abuse case. Years ago. I don’t think I had PTS disorder like he did but I know how difficult it is to come to terms with what has happened. I didn’t love my abuser but the protagonist in this book did. And we are very used to seeing abusers as evil and usually male. But here the abuser is female and he, the victim, manages to feel sorry for her. It is a tremendously powerful study of PTSD. And this is a mental health issue that isn’t talked about enough. There is a fantastic quote at the end of Perks of Being a Wallflower “Even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there.” “Even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there” That is beautiful and empowering. We have no power when we are younger to control adults—and some adults can be very damaging. But we can, with the right help, choose where we go afterwards. I think that is a very important message."