Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First of all, I respect any opinion that this is a great book. But I must say I am confounded by the thousands of five-star reviews, because not only do I not see that, but I actively, aggressively disliked "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," which would have been more aptly titled "The Perks of Being Weird and Weepy." I was not put off or bothered by the sex, drinking, drugs, language or some of the other things which seemed to have burned some readers' eyes (although I will add that anyone who really believes these are not elements regularly encountered in the life of the average high school student has probably not been to high school since the days of one-room schoolhouses). My criticisms mostly have to do with the characterizations, almost exclusively centered on our main character and narrator, Charlie. Charlie is a character who had a lot of possibilities, all mostly missed. He waffles between well-beyond-high-school profundity and confounding childishness. One minute he's pondering the meaning of life (with some real intuitiveness, sometimes) and the next he's wrapped up in some kind of nauseatingly twee description of something ("Do you know what a Secret Santa is?") And who, pray, is the "friend" on the other end of these letter entries? This "friend" whose persona would seem to have had enough rotations around the sun to know about sex, LSD, pot, heroin, etc., but has never heard of a Secret Santa or masturbation? Is this like the "Kitty" of Anne Frank's diary, or is this a real person? We never know, and the "Dear Friend" salutations and the "Love Always" closings quickly become tiresome, when at the outset the diary/letter approach seemed like a cool idea. As other reviewers have asked, *is* Charlie meant to have some intellectual disability, or isn't he? In reading, it almost made me angry that I wasn't given enough evidence to form a conclusion, because that may or may not have formed my conclusions of the character -- or at the very least made me more forgiving of the way this character is drawn. Worst of all, the crying! Charlie tells us "I started crying" so many times I lost count. The crying aside (if you can put it aside -- I really can't), it is impossible to tell whether the rudimentary descriptions of Charlie's feelings are devices on the part of the author, or are just egregious examples of a breaking with "show, don't tell." ("I wanted to be happy it was my birthday, but I felt upset." "...but I felt sad." "I was getting really upset.") It is simply not believable that the same character who is capable of a critical reading of "The Fountainhead" describes himself and his feelings as if he had just made a guest appearance on "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." The result of all this messiness is a character that I not only didn't understand or sympathize with, but aggressively loathed. It is also simply not believable that the group of "cool fringe kids," none of whom has a lot going for them either, depth-wise, would have the time of day for this sappy weirdo. By the time it was finally revealed that Charlie's past held a potential explanation for some of his feelings and behavior, I simply didn't care. I haven't disliked a central character this much in a long time, but the problem is I don't think the author intended him to be unlikable. So, "Dear Friend," to each his own, but it's not my own!