The Perks of Being a Wallflower

February 1, 1999
A trite coming-of-age novel that could easily appeal to a YA readership, filmmaker Chbosky's debut broadcasts its intentions with the publisher's announcement that ads will run on MTV. Charlie, the wallflower of the title, goes through a veritable bath of bathos in his 10th grade year, 1991. The novel is formatted as a series of letters to an unnamed "friend," the first of which reveals the suicide of Charlie's pal Michael. Charlie's response--valid enough--is to cry. The crying soon gets out of hand, though--in subsequent letters, his father, his aunt, his sister and his sister's boyfriend all become lachrymose. Charlie has the usual dire adolescent problems--sex, drugs, the thuggish football team--and they perplex him in the usual teen TV ways. He hangs out with a group of seniors, among whom are Patrick and Samantha. Patrick is gay, and Charlie learns about gay. Sam is pretty, and Charlie learns about heartbreak. Sam is, alas, going out with Craig. Charlie goes out with the uppity Mary Elizabeth. Patrick goes with Brad but breaks up with him when Brad's father discovers their relationship. Into these standard teenage issues Chbosky infuses a droning insistence on Charlie's supersensitive disposition. Charlie's English teacher and others have a disconcerting tendency to rhapsodize over Charlie's giftedness, which seems to consist of Charlie's unquestioning assimilation of the teacher's taste in books. In the end we learn the root of Charlie's psychological problems, and we confront, with him, the coming rigors of 11th grade, ever hopeful that he'll find a suitable girlfriend and increase his vocabulary.

mad4tennis - The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a great book about the transition from middle school to high school. 15 year-old Charlie is devastated when his best friend Michael dies. Michael was one of his only friends, and now that he's gone Charlie feels like an outsider. To and onto that Charlie's older brother has just left for college. He soon enough becomes friends with step siblings Partrick and Sam, both of who are seniors. This is a very good book, one that I would recommend to older kids. Though the ending is very confusing the entire book is really good so it makes up for the ending. The book is becoming a new movie out in September starring Logan Lerman as Charlie and Emma Watson as Sam.