1. Charlie. He is the main reason. This was the first book ever to make me actually want to dive into the pages and be best friends with a character. Everything about him: his naivety about the world, his unusual outlook, his constant pop culture references.. I just love him. He's an emotional wreck and a great friend. He thinks into things way too much. He's a total fucking headcase and for that, I love him. Oh, and he loves books AND the Smiths. So he has good taste, clearly.
2. And Patrick. I really, really want a gay best friend otherwise known as 'Nothing' who has secret sex with the quarterback and tells funny stories about Action Jack! Something about him just makes you want to know him- or maybe it's just the way Charlie idolises him. Complete with a stack of cutting comments for every occassion, to me Patrick totally dominates the supporting character bracket.
3. I love Charlie's quirky takes on everything. He can think about the simplest thing- like buying someone a record- and think up lists of etiquette for it! 'I would give someone a record so they could love the record, not so they would always know that I gave it to them,' he says. Charlie just has things occur to him that no one else would even consider, and it was so interesting to read them. Like, when Patrick is crying over Brad and suddenly kisses him, and all Charlie has to say is 'And I just let him. Because that's what friends are for.'
4. Because the book introduced me to the song Asleep by the Smiths, which is quite possibly the most beautiful song that ever existed. It's about lonliness and suicide and hoping for a better world, and I've never heard Morrissey sound quite so poignant. He sounds like he means it when he croons 'sing me to sleep..' In fact, he sounds inches from crying real tears. Like I did upon hearing it.
5. The ending made me cry. I don't often cry at books, although its not unheard of; but I was literally weeping because I seriously did not see that end coming. The book makes you care about Charlie so much, and the revelation at the end hits you like a double decker bus- I won't spoil it, but it must have taken me an hour to calm down. And then another four hours to stop thinking of a way to walk to wherever Charlie lived and hug him until he was numb.
I can't possibly do justice to this amazing book by ranting on about it, so I suggest that you go and read it. I think even people who don't always enjoy reading would appreciate it, because it's young and fresh and it doesn't date, even after what? Fifteen years? So, I mean it. Go out, and run, not walk, to your local Waterstones.
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