The Perks of Being a Wallflower

            The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, is a coming of age novel, written in the form of many letters by the teenager ‘Charlie’ (his alias), in the early 1990’s. Charlie is the ‘wallflower’ in the book. For those that don’t know, a wallflower is a shy and unpopular person who doesn't socialize with others very well.

            The story begins as Charlie is entering his freshman year in high school without any friends. His only friend Michael had committed suicide several months before. Charlie began writing letters to an anonymous stranger, which is what the book is. He doesn't feel like his parents or relatives understand him, and the only relative he had trusted was his aunt Helen, who was killed in a car crash on his seventh birthday.

The rest is just a summary with spoilers. It’s optional to read this.

            Charlie becomes friends with two other students at his school, Sam and her stepbrother Patrick. Charlie develops a crush on Sam, but he feels he has no chance with her. His two friends begin taking him to parties with some of their friends, on many adventures through Pittsburgh, and even some drug use. There was one party where Charlie had taken LSD and was found unconscious in the snow by the police.

            Even though he still likes Sam, he begins dating Mary Elizabeth, another girl in the friend group. They go on a few dates and to a school dance. At one party, everyone is playing Truth or Dare, and Charlie is dared to kiss the prettiest girl in the room. He kisses Sam, which results in Mary Elizabeth breaking up with him. Sam also begins dating Craig, who Charlie doesn't like, because he thinks that Craig doesn't really care about Sam. Sam later breaks up with Craig after she learns that he has been cheating on her with multiple other women.

            Charlie begins writing about Patrick and Brad’s relationship, the later is the school quarterback who is secretly gay. One day, Brad’s father finds the two kissing in Brad’s basement. He then beats Brad in front of Patrick. About a week later, Brad goes back to school and begins a fight with Patrick, which climaxes with both groups of friends beating each other up in the cafeteria. Charlie comes into the fight to help Patrick, seriously injuring some of Brad’s friends, ending the fight.

            After learning a frightening family secret about his aunt Helen, Charlie has a mental breakdown and is rushed to the hospital. However, his final letters give a feeling of hope, and that he will be able to move on from the past and focus on the future.

The summary is over.

            I loved this book so much; it really brought me to tears in the end. I should warn you though, there is some adult content in the book, so I don’t recommend reading it if you don’t find that suitable. It is a very challenged book, which is specifically why I decided to read it. It also reminded me greatly of The Catcher in the Rye, which I haven’t read all the way through, but I still know pretty much the gist of it. I also could greatly relate to Charlie, because in the seventh grade and about first half of eighth grade, I was a huge introvert. But I have learned not to dwell on things from the past, because it distracts me from the now (I've been watching a lot of Disney lately). It’s incredible how much this book has affected me, this is seriously one of those life changing books. One thing that greatly surprised me was that MTV had published the book, a channel whose current viewer demographics find Beavis and Butthead to be far too inquisitive and intellectual for them, which is why they canceled the reboot in less than a year. Anyway, without one second of hesitation I give this book an A+, and I highly recommend considering reading it. You won’t regret it in the slightest.