The Great Gatsby vs The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Young Adult, Fiction
The Great Gatsby
“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since.”
Here is a novel, glamorous, ironical, compassionate – a marvelous fusion into unity of the curious incongruities of the life of the period – which reveals a hero like no other – one who could live at no other time and…
1 film adaptation
vs
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a young adult coming-of-age epistolary novel by American writer Stephen Chbosky, which was first published on February 1, 1999, by Pocket Books. Set in the early 1990s, the novel…
The verdict
- Readers rate The Perks of Being a Wallflower highest: The Perks of Being a Wallflower 4.5 · The Great Gatsby 3.9.
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the quickest read — about 4 hours vs 7 for The Great Gatsby.
- The Great Gatsby has the widest readership — 6120259 ratings behind its score.
- The Great Gatsby runs the darker storyline; The Perks of Being a Wallflower stays the lighter read.
How to choose
Want a one-evening read?
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
≈ 4h vs 7h for The Great Gatsby
Want the crowd-tested pick?
The Great Gatsby
6120259 ratings vs 8404 for The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Just want the better-reviewed one?
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
4.5 vs 3.9 from readers
New to the genre?
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Light vs Moderate for The Great Gatsby
In the mood for something dark?
The Great Gatsby
a darker storyline than The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Scores by source
| The Great Gatsby | The Perks of Being a Wallflower | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.9 (6120259) | — |
| Hardcover | 4.5 (2) | 5.0 (1) |
| Google Books | 5.0 (1) | 4.5 (3) |
| Apple Books | 4.5 (806) | 4.5 (8404) |
| LiveLib | 4.0 (5) | — |
Reception
| The Great Gatsby | The Perks of Being a Wallflower | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 6120259 | 8404 |
| Editions | 1179 | 51 |
| Citations | 24 | — |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 2127185 | — |
| Reading it now | 85180 | — |
| Written reviews | 138625 | — |
| Wikipedia attention | 94574 | 98543 |
| Pages | 431 | 221 |