Have you ever thought to yourself, "I'm so lucky that this person came into my life," and if you had been in a different place at a different time, you wouldn't have met, and how unsettling that feels? That's how I feel about The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I am very glad that I happened to be in the library and that I randomly found this book out of all the other books in there. It is a book that reaches to your soul and makes you feel.

The book is about a young teenage boy called Charlie and is in letter format. Who does he write these letters to? We don't really know. They always start with "Dear friend," and always end with "Love always, Charlie." Once I got into the book I found that I ignored the letter format and it read like a regular 1st-person story.

The character of Charlie is a very interesting and likable character. He is honest, blunt, emotional, and deeply caring of others. From the start it seems that Charlie has a unique way of thinking and acting, and you may spend a lot of time trying to work out what's "wrong" with him. Does he have some kind of mental illness? After a while I realised that I related to Charlie a lot more than I thought, and that we all probably relate to Charlie in some way or another. Sometimes we can feel alone in how we think, and we keep things to ourselves because we don't believe that anyone else thinks that way. We don't want to be seen as a freak. Charlie doesn't seem to have the "shame" gene though, and at times he openly expresses his views much to the surprise of others.

The book is wonderfully written and I am impressed with Chbosky's style. Usually I am not a fan of short, quick sentences but it really worked in this book as it conveyed Charlie's blunt nature perfectly. Among the beautifully written words there is a storyline bubbling under the surface, which is both disturbing and sad. The revelation at the end shocked me, personally, as I didn't see it coming. Now that I look back, there were probably a few clues.

I don't believe that the blurb does this book justice. It makes it sound like your average book about growing up, but it is so much more than that.

"I think that if I ever have kids, and they are upset, I won't tell them that people are starving in China or anything like that because it wouldn't change the fact that they were upset. And even if somebody else has it much worse, that doesn't really change the fact that you have what you have. Good and bad."

I have only read one Mary Higgins Clark book before, Pretend You Don't See Her, so when I saw this book on a bookshelf I decided to borrow it from my library as I liked her style and the blurb looked interesting. I do feel that the blurb maybe gives the reader too much information in one go, but even with all this information upfront there are still some mysteries to be solved.

Twins Kathy and Kelly are kidnapped from their home on the evening of their third birthday while their parents are out at dinner. The babysitter was hit and knocked out and doesn't remember much. There is a ransom note from "The Pied Piper" demanding 8 million dollars for the return of the twins. Upon paying the ransom Kelly is found alive with the body of a man and his suicide note - stating he accidentally killed Kathy and dropped her body in the ocean. Once safely home Kelly starts "talking" to her twin, Kathy, and insists that she is still alive and that she wants to come home.

From the very beginning of the book through to the end we are given the point of view from all characters in the book, including the kidnappers. This makes for an interesting read because while the parents are going through hell wondering where their girls are, the reader knows exactly where they are. Knowing what is going on makes you want to jump into the story and tell the parents what's happening! It is an interesting style and different from the usual where the reader is pretty much as clueless as the victims.

Does knowing everything in the story make it boring and predictable? Definitely not! There is one thing that is kept a mystery - the identity of the Pied Piper. Who is he and why did he plot to kidnap the twins? Does he know the family?

The pace was steady and the story mapped out well. There were many "aha!" moments when both the characters and the reader would put two and two together, although sometimes I don't think these moments were written very well. It was almost as if Clark wanted to make sure you got the point and didn't try hard to make the revealing of it very realistic. At times the characters seemed to be quite "lucky" in their findings and I found myself saying wondering if they would have really been so successful if it was real life. However, without these little clues the story would not progress. Overall this was an enjoyable book which kept me gripped from beginning to end.

I had gone into the library to find a book. I had no idea what kind of book I wanted, I just knew I wanted to find a book. So I looked on the shelves, waiting to find a title that interested me. That's when I saw "When I Was Five I Killed Myself". Well, if that doesn't spark curiosity I don't know what does! The fact that one can kill oneself and then write about it was very curious indeed. So I borrowed it.

The story is told through the eyes of an eight year old boy called Burt who is currently in a home for children with mental problems. All we know at the start is that Burt has done something to a girl called Jessica; something awful, but we don't know what yet. The story skips between his experiences in the Children's Trust Residence Center after the incident, to his experiences at home and school, before and including the incident. It felt like a steady build up to the grand finale where we find out what actually happened, which was a bit bizarre and confusing, but you sort of get the jist of it.

The one thing that I think stands out in this book is how creative Burt's imagination is. He daydreams a lot, and these daydreams can surprise and shock you as they can be extremely random as well as unsettling. Burt also remembers a lot of things from when he was younger. Sometimes these memories seem random and unrelated but then you realise that they cleverly demonstrate the rocky relationship he has with his parents. They show us how easily confused a young, fragile and creative mind can be when a parent doesn't explain things properly.

Buten writes in a style I have never seen before. He captures the childlike voice quite well, but often I am left wondering whether an eight year old boy would really put sentences together in the way that they are in this book. I still felt a connection with the main character though, and there are some parts that are very amusing and some that made me think back to my own childhood.

To sum it up: a very interesting yet strange insight into a little boy's mind.