Book review: Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

January 1, 2026

This is my first post about something that isn't related to computers at all. I'll try to write some more whenever I get other ideas.

Today I've finished Flowers for Algernon, an award-winning science-fiction novel by Daniel Keyes.

Usually, I prefer non-fiction books. This is the first novel I've read in some time. I got it for Christmas, and I've found it engaging enough to finish it quite quickly. I found this book rather oddly, when I found out that it was the inspiration for a song I really like: Algernon, by Yorushika: a duo I've become very fond of these past two years. The blurb of the book was very interesting to me, so I gave it a shot, and I'm glad I did!

This is going to be a review of the novel. As a warning, I'll say that I'll speak about the book on its totality, so there will be spoilers. If you're interested in the book at all, do keep that in mind.

Summary

Our protagonist is Charlie Gordon, a grown adult with an abnormally low IQ that works in a bakery for a living. Charlie has always struggled with reading, writing and doing everyday tasks overall. However, he has a burning motivation to learn, to eventually become as smart as his peers. It is this motivation what makes him the chosen candidate to undergo a surgery that presumably will make him smarter (this surgery is the only bit of science-fiction in the book). This surgery had already been tested on a mouse called Algernon, with exceedingly good results.

After the surgery, it didn't take look for Charlie to become much smarter, even surpassing the expectations of the doctors by far. The plot is told to us by the reports Charlie himself wrote, even before the surgery, with which the evolution of his awareness can be appreciated. We get to see what he learns, the relationships he develops with the doctors, peers and other people in his circle, and how he adapts to this new perspective he has acquired.

Charlie achieves exactly what he wanted, becoming a genius in a matter of weeks, even leaving behind the intelligence of the very doctors that were researching him. He participates in conventions, learns multiple languages, and even learns about psychology, the science that made him what he was.

However, with his intelligence, something else came back: his memories. Slowly, Charlie starts having reminiscences about his past, and realizes that he lived in a toxic and abusive family environment, and that the people that he once considered friends were just laughing at his lower intelligence, day after day. This torments him and makes him commit erratic decisions. We realize how his heart could not keep up with the speed his brain was developing at.

To make matters worse, the intelligence of Algernon, the mouse that was treated before him, began deteriorating, to the point where it was even lower than the one he started with, which led to his death. This makes Charlie go on a research rampage to figure out why it happened. Sure enough, he ends up finding the reason why, making him realize that at worst, he'll share the same fate as Algernon.

The book ends with Charlie going to an asylum, writing the same way he was writing before the surgery, with nothing but bits of what he ended up achieving during his illustrious phase.

My thoughts

The narration

Something I found interesting from the very beginning is the way in which the story is narrated. As I've mentioned, it's told through the reports Charlie writes. This was executed very well, because these reports feel very natural and organic. Some reports aren't related to each other, they're just thoughts or experiences, like a diary. Considering the fact that some entries are days apart, it makes sense that they shouldn't necessarily have any correlation. And still, the story is very easy to follow.

The characters

The novel has the right amount of characters for it to be deep enough without being overwhelming. At times it's hard for me to keep up with characters of a book or series, but I didn't have that issue with this book. The personalities of each character are well defined and each of them stands out in their own ways, even if they're slight.

One character I find very interesting is Alice, Charlie's teacher the days before his surgery and then lover. As Charlie was still getting smarter and smarter, Alice's behavior towards Charlie had drastic changes. This makes sense, because Charlie's behavior was also inherently drastic. At times I thought Alice's swings were maybe too exaggerated, but after some thought it actually makes sense. Out of every character in the story, Alice was probably the one that had it the hardest, apart from Charlie. She had to make very difficult choices, because she fell in love with someone that was just learning to interact with people ordinarily.

The plot development

The evolution of Charlie is very well done. The details aren't overlooked and it doesn't feel rushed, even considering how rapid his evolution was. I like the detail that, early on his evolution, Charlie is told to try to write simply enough for researchers to understand. This is an important detail, because one would assume that Charlie's writing style would become too eloquent as he was getting smarter, to the point where it would be hard to understand him. The writer adds this detail to avoid making the novel unnecessarily hard to read, which is quite funny. Still, Charlie's eloquence is not fully hidden, and we can appreciate it in some of his long monologues.

Even if the family barely appears physically in Charlie's post-surgery life, we still know a lot about them through Charlie's memories. They play a key role in Charlie's development, and it was interesting to notice that, even if they end up barely interacting with Charlie during his intelligent life.

I like the gimmick about how Charlie has visions of his past self, quietly lurking around him at times, which hints how his former self isn't gone and that he's trying to gain control again. It's a sort of slight horror that is very well executed. I'd like to stand out the first appearance of "old Charlie". In the first date with Alice, Charlie feels like someone is watching him. At that time, he doesn't know it's his past self, he just think it's an annoying kid. Only later we (and Charlie) realize that the kid was actually himself, and that he'll come back many more times later on. These details are scattered through the whole story, and only after a few reports can we see what they mean, until Charlie finally confronts his other self in the mirror, staring at him with a slight, aimless smile.

As a bit of criticism, I think a lot of attention was put into Charlie's romantic life. Sure, this helps to build the lesson that can be learnt from this book, but after Charlie's surgery, we barely see him try to make platonic friends. To be fair, after realizing what the intentions of his so-called "friends" from the bakery were with him, Charlie felt reluctant to making more friends. But on more than one occasion after that, Charlie admits that he tried his best to get along with people. I would've liked to see more of these attempts. A lot of focus was put into his romantic relationships with Alice and then Fay, which as I've said, makes sense. However, the execution outshined Charlie's desire for friendship, which was one of his main motivations in the first place.

Other than that, I'm very satisfied with the way the plot develops. While before reading the book I already knew that Algernon dies at some point, I wasn't expecting Charlie to head in that same direction. I like the ending, leaving it open enough for us to wonder whether Charlie will find happiness in the asylum, with other people like him on it, or if he will share the same fate as his lab mouse turned mascot.

What we can learn from the book

On his last days of intellectual clarity, Charlie finally realizes that his intellect was not enough to achieve what he wanted. Charlie just wanted to be respected as a friend. Before and even after the surgery, he thought that he'd achieve that purely with his sheer intellect. After he realized that wasn't true, proven by the fact that he was feeling even lonelier than before his surgery, he becomes furious.

Charlie learnt in a matter of months what would take a lifetime (or more) to learn. And yet, he was as emotionally immature as ever, which led to him losing many of the relationships he developed. Alice was one of the first people to realize how his emotional intellect didn't evolve with the rest, pushing back Charlie's romantic intents in favor of trying to make him get close to other people. She put it best, reminding him about how he had to learn in weeks what people take a lifetime to learn: empathy, being social, and being able to love someone. Alice did her best not to stand in his way.

What we can learn from Flowers for Algernon is that life is not nearly as easy as just being a knowledgeable person. There's much more to it than just knowing stuff. Being kind, patient and empathetic are virtues as important as intelligence, or more; and you don't learn those values just by reading books or articles. As Charlie puts it (translated as best as I could from the Spanish version of the book):

"Intelligence without the capacity of giving and taking affection leads to mental and moral collapse, neurosis and even psychosis. A selfish interest as its own end, without any form of human connection, will not lead anywhere but to violence and pain."

This was a very good read, I highly recommend this novel. It's a great reminder that above all, our day-to-day feelings are tied to our emotions. It doesn't matter how smart you are, you'll never be happy if you can't control those emotions, and that can't be learnt just by reading books.

Do check out the novel if you found it intersting!

~ Markel