This book is wonderful! And when I ordered it I received it in the perfect "reading" condition. I could tell someone had read it, but that's how a book should be! All people should read this book-me and my friends passed it around and the margins are now full of how it made us feel at particualr moments. Read it!!

this book is amazing. i have gotten over 10 of my friends to read it
and all of them have liked it. i would recommend this book to anyone.
i read a lot of books and this one is my favorite every time.

In this book, the protagonist Charlie is a freshman who grows up in experience and self-confidence throughout the book. In fact he is the one who is called a "wallflower", because he "hears things, understands them and keeps quiet about them". He also has to deal with the suicide of his best friend and the death of his favorite family member, his aunt. Altough, throughout the book he learns with the help of two seniors and his English teacher more about life, dealing with love, drugs and sexuality. He falls the first time in love, goes to partiess and takes drugs. He learns to share his problems and opinions by writing it down. The word choice in this book is directed towards young high school students. I also love how it's written. It is written in a series of letters to an anonymous friend. The basic theme of this book is that active participation is much better than passive. It's better to live your life participating and pursuing your dreams rather than standing on the sidelines and watching the actions.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky is a wonderful novel about an odd teenage boy going through high school. The great thing about this book is that the reader gets to really imagine the characters, their images, and style. To be able to imagine their actual lives, and what they went through. Charlie does a great job with just adapting to his environment, with no discrimination towards his gay friends, or keeping control with his sisters boyfriends. Charlie grows and becomes such a great and strong person throughout this novel, it's very inspiring to see that even after all of his down's in life, he can still live and carry on. This was a great book with a rough but happy ending, because Charlie almost leaves you on a sad note, having to guess what will happen to him. Then pick's it up for one last time, letting you know he is okay, defiantly the best part of the book is knowing he will be okay. Stephen Chbosky is a great writer, and I would be glad to see a few more books from him.

excellent portrayal of a teenager of extreme sensitivity without being self-indulgent or saccharine. i'm not normally a fan of coming-of-age novels, but somehow this one speaks to me. touching, beautiful.

This book should be a requirement for high school kids. It is such an honest portrayal of life, I love it!

A hauntingly beautiful novel about the pain and joy of growing up. I bought this novel on a whim and finished in a day. The characters are honest and relatable; the story is timeless and moving. I will probably reread this novel countless times and share it with my kids when they are in high school.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an incredible novel that portrays the span of high school and adolescence in such a powerful, beautiful, and heartbreaking way that the reader will find him or herself glued to the novel from start to finish, weeping and chuckling at every single point of the story.

This book was incredibly interesting to read. So interesting, in fact, I read it twice. The character, Charlie is very honest, as said in the book by his friend, and has a very neat way of writing. It makes the book that more interesting. The whole way of how the book was written as letters were very neat. What I liked a lot about this book is that the Charlie character never had an absolutley terrible downspiral. Unless you consider the hospital visit at the end a absolutley horrible downspiral, Charlie did out just fine. I thought this book was very refreshing and simple and sweet. The character Charlie was interesting and innocent. His friends were a lot different from him, making his relationship with them very interesting. What else I liked about this book is how Charlie never had any bad feelings about anyone. There was not any generic antagonist that you always see in books. There was of course, an antagoinst somewhere. But it was very well hidden. The relationships Charlie has with all the other characters in the book are very quirky and unique. Overall, this book is very refreshing and somewhat happy although its dealing with drugs. I will give it a 9/10.

-T.G.SHAW

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky was suggested to me by a young man on my Gather site. He explained that it was one of his and his friend's favorite books and it now has become a staple on my bookshelf to share with the young people in our family.
The title explains exactly what the book is about. A coming of age study that is difficult to put down once you begin reading.

Product arrived quickly and in the condition it was described - if not better. Great experience would buy from seller again.

This book has faced challenges in many schools and communities. Check out the interview with Stephen Chbosky from Word Riot on his response to some of the challenges.

My response: What's more important - a few things you don't agree with, or a powerful story about a teenage boy learning to deal the world around him? I know, what a silly question.

I'll be honest, I had a hard time with this book at first. I spent the first part of the book wondering whether Charlie was supposed to have emotional problems or whether the writing was just awkward. When it became clear that Charlie did have emotional problems, I started to wonder why nobody but me seemed to notice. But then comes the big reveal... And Chbosky does it so well that it made the whole rest of the book shift into focus, and I could see why this is such a powerful book for so many teenagers.

In this powerful and well written novel, Charlie (not his real name) a fifteen year old high school freshman describes the events in his life through letters. Charlie seems to life life on the outside and does not really participate in life. Eventually his English teacher encourages Charlie to be involved in what is going on around him instead of being a wallflower. Once Charlie participates he finds friends, new activities and even a girlfriend. The author does a wonderful job of describing Charlie's feelings especiallly in relation to his family. Charlie's attitude and caring heart makes you feel that he is truly a nice person. And Charlie is not just caring but also very intelligent. However noone really notices his intelligence because he is always being pushed into the background. There is some homosexuality and discussion of drug abuse but this only adds to the realness of the characters. Many teens may have to deal with drugs, alcohol and homosexuality so I believe the book is a positive presenation on how some of these issues can be dealt with. I would recommend this book to all high school students interested in interesting realistic fiction.

I honestly don't understand how people think so lowly of this book that they must give it 1 star... But to each his own...

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of my favorite books for so many reasons.
I really like the fact that we don't know who "Charlie" is writing to, because it just leaves more room to think. Or what anyone's real name is; it shows that their names don't really matter. We can identify with the characters no matter what they are called.
I also really like Charlie, because I think the introvert inside of all of us can relate to him. Everyone, especially us teenagers, has times where we feel awkward and lonely and depressed. But we also have those amazing moments, where we truly do feel infinite just like Charlie.
I find Charlie's simple appreciations and innocence very admirable, and it's one of the reasons why I like him so much.
As for the people who say that this book addresses too many issues and simply drops them, this book isn't supposed to be about just one certain issues directed at a certain audience. To me, this book is addressing human nature and life itself, as cliche as that sounds.
People also complain about the way Charlie uses quotation marks whenever he uses slang. I'm pretty sure Chbosky didn't put those there because he wasn't sure how to use them. He was there in the early 90s, too. He knows how it worked. I feel that Charlie used those quotations again showing his awkward side, and the way CHARLIE wasn't sure of them. Keep in mind that he uses correct grammar. There are teenagers who know what that is.

Also, for people who may skip epilogues (why?!): The epilogue is, I feel, important to the story if you feel like you want to be able to identify him even more. As he says, it's not made him who he is today... but I feel that it definitely puts some pieces together.

This book is so incredible, it touched a piece of my soul. "Of Mice and Men" used to hold the top spot for me, and it now sits at #2 because of this book. If you loved American Beauty, Of Mice and Men, and/or The Catcher in the Rye, I think you'll love this book. Why? It's all about how people have so many flaws, but at the end of the day, they are special and amazing... it's about seeing the beauty in life, even through the hardest of times.

The biggest problem I had with this book, and shockingly the most lauded aspect, was Charlie. He was the most unrealistic protagonist I have ever seen. Fifteen year olds who aren't evangelical christians know what masturbation is. They don't use the word genitals in casual writing. They say "really" not "very" or "especially". They use contractions, not the precious and oh-so-earnest alternative. They'd never call it "marijuana" if they were also smoking it. And they never, ever, use the term "grown-ups" with a straight face. Or, here, let me clarify:

Fifteen year olds who take drugs, like the Smiths, know the meaning of the word "infinite," drink in excess, have seen a rape, have had a friend commit suicide, and who have witnessed a whole number of other after school special scenarios, do not write this way. Autistic savants write this way, third graders write this way, and 25 year olds who want their characters to do their heartstring-tugging work for them, they too write this way.

When I was fifteen (only three years ago, by the way,) I will admit, I was like Charlie in a few ways. Socially awkward, smart, the prototypical "weird gifted and talented kid". I wanted so badly for him to be exactly like me, acerbic (or trying to be,) self-conscious to an absurd degree, wanting to be impressive, and eagerly clamoring for the "Prodigy" title. But somehow, Charlie manages to be brilliant (in fact, the most brilliant person one teacher has ever met! how sweet!) while being utterly clueless and guileless. His writing is mediocre, his intellectual grasp of the books he reads (and apparently writes stellar analyses of) is childlike, yet somehow he manages to spew out his profound observations on human nature in between descriptions of what Secret Santa is (embedded in quotes, as if he's talking to a foreign exchange student.) We are meant to believe that he is at once gimlet- and doe-eyed.

To be clear: Charlie is not a wallflower at all. When I think "wallflower," I think socially anxious, awkward, paralyzed by nerves. Charlie is antisocial, in the clinical sense of the word. It's not that he is scared of social interaction, it's that he doesn't have the faintest idea how it works.

But the implausibility doesn't stop there: somehow, this socially-retarded young Plato manages to befriend and enchant a group of worldly-ultra cool seniors who, in their pretentious (but retrospectively lame) 90's rituals (Eating at Big Boy, drinking brandy and reading dark poetry together, publishing-I'm serious- ZINES,) represent all the real-life Charlies, the ones who are suburbanite-edgy and troubled and wise and, most realistically, desperately want you to think that they are. Unlike Charlie, they listen to the Smiths not so much because they feel "infinite" when they hear Morrissey's whiny ballads, but because they so badly want you to know how much they love cool music, cool movies, and cool people. In their spine-crushing attempts to be spine-crushingly cool, they are more accurate depictions of real teenagers than Charlie. This is not to say that they are realistic either, as their relatively unpretentious speech and open-arms acceptance of Charlie is difficult to swallow, but they are certainly more real than our hero Mary Sue Caulfield. My, how convenient for Chbosky that Charlie can be called upon to be edgy, volatile, brilliant, simple, clueless, and even a weeping head case who goes suddenly catatonic. It all depends on what works best with Chbosky's newest ready-for-my-MTV-closeup scene. Some might say that this rollercoaster of emotions adds to the realism, is a normal part of teenage life, but these people don't remember the shocking banality of teenhood.

Let's not forget the after school special feel of it all, something that, unlike my observations on Charlie's unrealistic preciousness, has been noted by many other reviewers. I will only echo what they say: Very few teenagers go from complete naivete to drugs, sex, and rock 'n roll so quickly and so smoothly. I was reminded of horrible tripe like Go Ask Alice and Catherine Hardwicke's movie Thirteen, in which innocence is so quickly shattered and the lives of supposedly smart and responsible kids so easily and seamlessly muddied that we are left to wonder if the perpetrators of these fantastical coming-of-age lies have ever even been teenagers. But I digress...

And for the record, I am not averse to cute coming-of-age stories with a precious little smarty pants at their center. I loved Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and thought Oskar Schell was, if a bit unrealistic, at least charmingly so. I thought A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was quite good, mostly because it was so honest with itself, and I loved Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog In the Nighttime. I might add that his protagonist actually WAS autistic, but somehow quite similar to Charlie in his bursts of uncharacteristic violence, simple speech, and utter lack of people skills. If you're looking for a better read than this one, I would suggest picking up one of those titles.

To be fair, there were some passages I liked. Occasionally I stopped my seething and identified with Charlie's passivity and mistaken idea that helping other lives along and watching still counts as living. And I did enjoy Sam's speech to him at the end about love and needing him to be there. But Charlie himself was too much, and his voice cast a heartbreakingly innocent, daisy-chained, Tiny Tim shadow over anything that could qualify as profound.

I think it's time to wrap up this little hatefest, so I'll end with some advice regarding who this book IS for, since it is certainly not for me.

If you loved Juno, if you enjoy twee pop, if you absolutely looooove mixtapes but weren't alive when people actually made them for each other, if you have Anne Geddes photographs in your home, if you're one of those people who constantly rambles on about how a song, or book, or movie "changed your life," then this book, this saccharine sweet little cupcake of a book, is singularly, and unfortunately, made for you.

Chbosky uses his character Charlie's first-person narrative to explore those moments in day-to-day life that mean so much, but so often escape words. I loved getting to know Charlie through his letters and seeing him grow up throughout the book, sharing his deep and honest perspectives on freshman year of highschool. I am looking forward to re-reading this book again and again, and would reccommend it to anyone!

Stephen Chbosky's mind is intricate, yet simple. In Perks, he uses the character of Charlie to show the readers the honest mind of your average freshman. The catch is, Charlie isn't average. This book will bring into a world of drugs, sex, and death and the things Charlie goes through in high school. I've never read a book where I felt so connected to the main character. I recommend this book to anyone who has experienced high school or has ever had a moment that made them feel "infinite".

After hearing such great things about this book I gave in and decided to have the first hand experience of finally reading it for myself only to find a great disappointed in the end. Don't get me wrong some parts were in deed interesting but I felt as if the book had no meaning to it, and if it did, it should be more clear to what that meaning is. The ending was quite confusing, the writing was just plain TERRIBLE, no words can describe, and the main character (charlie) wasn't very likable (unless your the type to like EXTREMELY sensitive crybaby's who sulk all the time) The book had some potential at first, but then slowly started going downhill. The only reason I got myself to finish reading it was because I thought it would get interesting again, but of course it didn't.

I thought this book was ok, but not a 'must' read. The main character Charley was someone I cared about when I was reading, but forgot about as soon as I stopped reading. Am I the only reviewer who thinks Charley was mentally-challenged???? The clues are all there, folks. There are better books to read than this one was.

that's what you'll think from beginning to end.

Chobsky took an unusual approach with this book by writing from the perspective of those people who live on the fringe of life. They are there but they aren't a participant. They are the isolated, quiet, reflective ones that many of us probably only give a passing thought to.

Charlie's story isn't all that fascinating to be honest. It's pretty standard as far as teenagers go ..he's having a tough time fitting in and adjusting to high school. His parents and siblings aren't abusive or horrible to him but more like detached and don't try very hard to understand Charlie or what he is going through. He struggles with the awkwardness of dating, making friends and how to "participate" in life.

Charlie however is just utterly amazing. I've never read about a book whose characterization comes anywhere near this beautiful and endearing mix. He is deeply reflective, extremely introverted and super sensitive. He sees others so completely and optimistically but has little to no understanding of himself or how to fit in with those around him. His optimism about others is astounding but his dark depression is poignant and believable. He is an intensely complicated character who is hard to understand but yet you'll find yourself connecting to him and rooting for him.

I felt that this author does a truly superb job into brining you into the life of someone who we don't often consider but give us so many reasons why we absolutely should. I highly recommend it.

"I walked over to the hill where we used to go and sled. There were a lot of little kids there. I watched them flying. Doing jumps and having races. And I thought that all those little kids are going to grow up someday. And all of those little kids are going to do the things that we do. And they will all kiss someone someday. But for now, sledding is enough. I think it would be great if sledding were always enough, but it isn't."
-The Perks of Being a Wallflower"

That is all you need to know about this book. Read it.

An oral sex rape scene. A gay football player who gets drunk every time he has sex. A Peeping Tom narrator. Sleep-inducing subject-verb prose. Absolutely phony, contrived characters. Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" renders teen angst far more authentically than Chbosky's novel in this MTV version of adolescence. Isn't it time i-Pod addicted American teens stopped contemplating their navels to connect to the wider world and their potentially heroic selves?

Awaken your students inner Mother Teresa. For your classroom library, consider buying "Three Cups of Tea: One Child at a Time", the adaptation of Greg Mortenson's memoir chronicling his epic efforts to promote peace by building schools for girls in Pakistan. Or purchase "Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty" by Muhammad Yunus.

This book was absolutely wonderful. I've never enjoyed reading so much in my life. It was a very sad-happy book, and honestly, i wanted to cry at some parts. But when i finally brought myself to read the end, i no longer felt like crying, i felt happy. The book changed my view-point on life. It showed me that i should stop thinking about everything i think about so much and just do it. Participate in life, as the book says.

I intended to buy the book, but the book on disc sufficed. This book was about the trial and error of a growing high school boy. It was similar to Catcher in the Rye, another book I love. However, the boy in this story is not nearly as strange as Holden from Catcher in the Rye. I would recommend this book to all my friends!

I don't think teenagers should be encouraged to read this. Experimenting with drugs. Gay lifestyles. Underage sex. Dealing with death badly. Giving in to peer pressure. Basically everything you don't want a teenager to get confused about. This book is a sympathic view to teenagers making bad decisions and acting badly.

But it's well written and interesting. So I give it 3 stars. It has a certain realism that many adults could relate to. It steers into directions that would never happen in real life too. Like older teenagers accepting younger teenagers into their cliches. That almost never happens. Teenagers tend to be very status conscious at this age. And boys don't cry. He would be hounded relentessly for displaying these weaknesses. Reality is much more poignant for teenagers.

this book was authentic, and gripping from the beginning. Finished it in two days, automatically related to the main character and what he was going through.

I loved this book and most of all I loved Charlie. A teenager named Charlie is writing letters to an unknown person he heard about from a student at school. This book made me laugh out loud with its honesty. Charlie never held back with his thoughts, he was sweet, likable and I wish he were writing to me. Every young person should read this book.

I mainly wrote this review so I could make sure that this book keeps it's 4 1/2 star status which is a little under what it deserves.
I adore this book, because Charlie is wierd but OK with that, and is kind, but yet still manages to be imperfect.
That's mainly what I love this book. You should read it as soon as you can if you haven't already! You have to ignore the negative reviews because this is a really, really good book.
Ok I'm done ranting. But it really is that good.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower was a short, laugh out loud, light read. I recommend it to read during the summer because i read it during the school year and found it pretty difficult to write a 6 page report on it.
It is about an innocent boy named Charlie who is going through his freshmen year of high school. His best friend Michael commits suicide because of "problems at home" and Charlie is left without friends. At first, he is okay with this- Charlie tends to keep to himself anyway. But then at his first football game without Michael, Charlie meets Patrick and Sam, who are seniors and brother and sister. They quickly become friends with Charlie and are extremely kind to him, they seem to understand him as well. Charlie is definitely an odd ball. He weaves many "life quotes" throughout the book. One, for example is "I love twinkies, and the reason i am telling you this is because we are all supposed to find something to live for." His innocence in this mook makes it interesting and will cause you to laugh out loud at some points. The beginning of the book is great, and the middle is good, then the end is bad. It just seems to go downhill because despite that it is charlie's freshmen year of high school- that doesnt necessarily mean he will try EVERYTHING. The book becomes unrealistic and the end is just bad. I was mad after i read the ending, i had to re-read it in the first place just to understand what the author was trying to infer, I suppose i should have guessed, it is a MTV book, so it doesnt have a whole lot of depth. Personally, id give it a 3.5 if i could. The funny thing about this book is that my 2 best friends read it for school too and one absolutely loved it and said it is her favorite book, while the other absolutely hated it and said he was mad for reading it. It can be a very controversal book, but it only takes 3-4 hours to read so if you've got some time to kill, knock urself out and form your own opinion.
The books format is interesting. The main character, Charlie, is writing letters to an annoymous person. The reader never finds out who he's writing to, but it seems like it is someone Charlie doesnt know personally. Als, you never find out some of the character's names. Charlie just calls them My uncle or My sister.
Good, not great.

Don't let the fact that it's an "MTV Book" throw you off - Chbosky's "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is one hell of a book. The story itself is made up of letters that the main character, Charlie, writes to an anonymous person, telling of his life over the course of his freshman year of high school, a year that is a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. It's a beautiful coming-of-age story that captivated me when I first read it five years ago in seventh grade, and it still managed to mesmerize me when I re-read it a week ago.

This book is fantastic for a number of reasons. To begin with, the writing style and the flow of the letters are great; you get the feel that this is a kid writing these letters, yet it's not full of ridiculous, cliche phrases or slang or even a bunch of swear words. It just flows smoothly and sounds very natural, and you really feel like it's Charlie himself who's writing the words.

The book also encompasses many events and scenes that seem real-to-life; this is one of those books that you can picture yourself in, because the characters are so realistic. You can literally picture everything going on and see the events in the book really transpiring in real-life, because the characters are just that convincing and true-to-life. Many of the characters reminded me of myself or people I know, and that seems to be true for most of the people I know that have read this book. The book is so enjoyable, because it's so relatable; you can just see these things happening to yourself or people you know or go to school with. It's just fantastic.

Another thing that makes it so relatable and so true-to-life are the emotions. This book is full to the brim with so many different emotions, and they're all executed beautifully. One page, you'll be laughing hysterically at something that happened, the next you'll be gushing, "Awwwwwwww!!" and the one after that you'll be sniffing and trying to hold back tears. There is so much raw emotion in this book, and it's a joy being able to experience all of it for yourself as you're reading it.

I truly love this book, and it seems to get better every time I re-read it. It's been in my top five or ten favorite books for the last few years, and I'm guessing it'll remain there. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is a gorgeously written coming-of-age story that every teen (and adult) should experience for themselves at least once in there life. Like Charlie, it makes one feel "infinite."

Remember when this book was good and it was it was called "The Catcher in the Rye"?

The first 190 pages are well written. The end is so contrived that you feel like you're watching an afternoon soap opera.

I found this book very interesting. It made me think a lot about myself, how I view others, and how I view my past high school experience. It taught me to not always think about other people and think about yourself sometimes. Only when you are happy with yourself in life and have some direction can you help others to become happy and guide them in life. I found the main character of Charlie very fascinating and I wish I could feel "infinite" more often.

I read this when I was a teenager. It was as amazing then as it is now. I don't feel that I need to elaborate because there are so many reviews that already say the same things that I would. Just read it.

Admittedly, I didn't expect much from a book published by MTV. Further, I'm about a decade removed from my teen years, although it HAS been some time since reading this book. While I don't typically like young adult novels, I do make exceptions once in a great while. I try not to limit myself but books like this, like Perks, are the foundation for why I DO try to steer clear of young adult novels.

First, the idea of a collection of letters must've seemed clever in 1999. Personally, I thought it was pretty dumb and halfway pretentious. I found it unnecessary to put the book into that format because it's obvious the author is talking to his general reading audience and not one particular person, who incidentally, is never identified. Why not make it look like a journal instead? Why not just write a novel without all the fluff?

Second, this teenager, CHARLIE, is supposed to be an odd kid, more mature/intelligent than his peers. This was just not believable in the slightest way. When Charlie mentions that his teacher "Bill" has complimented him on his improved writing skills, are readers supposed to take note of this and believe it? Seems more like Mr. Chbosky just got tired of writing like a teenage kid and needed an excuse to use more articulate vocabulary and improved sentence structure. In fact, the entire book isn't believable in this respect. I didn't hear Charlie's voice talking to an unnamed person in letters he wrote regularly. I heard Stephen Chbosky, talking to the average reader, trying desperately to dumb down his own intelligence to pull this off, which didn't work, not as far as I'm concerned anyway.

It did have it's moments... Charlie's innocence, how his observations were conveyed, the way he justified his actions, it was infinitesimally sweet and charming. I guess as a whole, it just didn't work for me. Good thing it was short, good thing it was cheap, good thing I'm through reading it.

This book is amazing. it opened my eyes to so much and i am so thankful!

"Perks" was my first book that followed me everywhere. It was my first MTV book (still the best one I've read so far!) and it was my first book that stated things EXACTLY as they were meant. No wishy washy sentences here! It was real down to its core.
I loved it.
It was a book that I passed out to my friends to read. If I didn't get it back, I stalked them until they got sick of seeing my face.

This is not The Catcher In the Rye. That is a good thing. Every story should be able to own itself and not come across as the newest, revamped model of a well loved book that was written decades ago.

This the heartbreaking story of a brilliant, emotionally stunted, socially inept, well-meaning, sweet boy. It's a story told from his point of view in a series of letters to stranger. For those who find the writing stilted, the main character flawed, the story unbelievable, or the likelihood of such a boy having any friends: I urge you to think of this not only as a novel, but one that is voiced by an eccentric and naive freshman. For me, the very characteristics of this book that cause it to come under fire are the same ones that cause me to have nothing but praise for it. Not every freshman is a poet. Not every freshman is socially adept to the world. It is not the case that a boy will always "get" girls. Everyone starts somewhere; our protagonist just starts a little farther back.

Charlie is a fascinating character to me. The voice through which all events in the book are depicted, he is emotionally vacant; yet unaware of his own limitations. This leads to an interesting narration of events. He can tell that a character is happy or sad, but it is hard for him to really grasp the "why" behind the actions he observes.

Chobosky created a character who tells us two stories: the one he voices and the one we can imagine from the other characters' prospective. Because we are not as naive as Charlie, because we have loved and lost, we can groan at what Charlie is missing in the moments he describes. We know why it doesn't work out with some girl or why his siblings fight. He is the straight man telling a funny joke and a sad, sad tale.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky provides an in-depth look of what it is like to grow up in high school. While the sex, drugs, and teen angst may all seem a little cliché, Chbosky does an amazing job of realistically portraying high school situations in a uniquely hilarious way through the protagonist Charlie. The story is told through Charlie's devastating letters to whom the reader may not know he is writing. The theme woven through Charlie's letters is his constant struggle between passivity and passion. Letter by letter the reader is drawn into Charlie's fanatical world only to be in awe at the story's end.

The story begins with the start of Charlie's freshman year in high school where he is prone to depression, shy, introverted, and "on the fringes of life" after dealing with the losses of a friend and his Aunt Helen. He is a wallflower, someone intelligent beyond his years but socially awkward. Some of the few people to notice Charlie's intelligence are his English teacher and newfound senior friends Sam and Patrick. With their help Charlie comes to terms with life and learns to interact. Letter by letter the plot unfolds as Charlie learns to deal with almost every tough issue know to a teen. Chbosky handles these tragic issues so well that they come off as realistic rather than over-the-top. This realism is why I believe The Perks of Being a Wallflower is such a special book.

Chbosky further develops the theme of Charlie's struggle between passivity and passion through the constant pressures he must face in his freshman year in high school. Whether it is dances, first dates, drugs, sexuality, or the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Charlie is relentlessly barraged with the task of eliminating his social awkwardness. Chbosky's realistic style leaves an impact on the reader by placing him or her into Charlie's world. There the reader gets an up close and personal view of each developing situation and becomes attached to the ups and downs associated with Charlie's life. Charlie's relationship with his teacher Bill also parallels one of the major themes of the novel. This theme is the clash between young adult and adult culture. While Charlie is trying to identify himself as a man, he continuously finds himself running away from his life and reverting back to a childlike state. Bill acts as an intermediate force between these clashing worlds and tries to get Charlie to lead a normal high school life and further provide an identity for Charlie. Bill helps Charlie get his mind off the things Charlie is running away from through books and essay writing.

In my opinion, Perks of Being a Wallflower is an amazing book that should be read by all high school students. Chbosky offers humor, drama, and a unique quality to the story that keeps the reader entertained with each turning page. The novel is truly an entertaining read and I would recommend it to anyone who has experienced the highs and lows of high school.

The Truth: I'm a Girl, I'm Smart and I Know EverythingThe Perks of Being a Wallflower really is a psychological masterpiece. It speaks with a universal voice and tone that almost all teens share in common, at least some of the time. It helps teens to feel at home with the inner and outer pushes and pulls of growing up and it helps parents understand better what they may have long forgotten. We all need this type of reality check as it is so easy to feel alone growing up and it is also so easy to forget the pain once we are adults. I see The Truth (I'm a girl, I'm smart and I know everything, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower as books parents should make sure their kids read at the ideal ages. The coming of age issues in The Truth hit a couple of years earlier. The girl needs to hold on to herself as she turns 12. In The Perks, the guy needs to survive, and hold on to himself as he moves into the real teen years. Both stages are critical. I'm so happy as a practicing psychologist that there are more and more fiction books out on the market that are fiction, yet accurate and helpful in-depth discussions of the transitions of growing up. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is right at the top of the list. Dr. Barbara Becker Holstein, www.thetruthforgirls.com

i read it on my sophomore year in high school and became attached to it. Perfect coming of age story to open your eyes about life...and the reality of it.

It's been awhile since I read Perks, and I don't recall when I first started reading it, but I distinctly remember the night I finished it. I couldn't put it down, reading until the middle of the night, out on the couch while my husband slept. And that's where he found me, sitting with the book in my lap, crying deeply. Stephen Chbosky created a protagonist who's adolescence was incredibly real and familiar, and in Charlie's story I saw my own high school memories - of being taken under the wing of an older crowd, and of being left behind as they graduated. The novel, written in the form of Charlie's anonymous letters to 'a friend', creates an interesting format for the narrative and truly reveals the author's gift for natural voice. We are voyeurs, reading letters not meant for us, written by a high school freshman who perhaps feels things too deeply. And maybe that's why I was so moved by it - because as I read Charlie's letters about his own life, I got to know him, and care about him, and relate to him in a way a third person account, or even a standard first person account wouldn't have facilitated. I'll surely reread Perks every few years, when I want to remember the good and bad of high school and shed some tears, the way you do with an old box of letters you keep under the bed because they mean too much to throw away.

My younger sister bought this book and then after gave it to me-and it is one of those books that I will pick up and read again and again. It is so beautifully written and continues to leave the reader with a new outlook each time it is read. I am in college now and have passed this book along to others to be read and every one of them has loved it so far. It is by far one of the best books I have ever read, hands down. I would recommend it for everyone to read!

I'm not sure why the reviews on this site are so positive. I thought this was fairly boring and seemed to be somewhat of a copy of 'Catcher in the Rye' (which is over-rated in the first place). I think if I was still in high school I would have liked this more but having read these types of stories I was fairly bored with this. Recommended for readers of Young Adult books only.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower tells the story of Charlie, an awkward and introspective high school freshman. The book is comprised of a series of letters that Charlie writes to an unknown recipient, relating the news of his life, the friendships with a group of seniors, his complex relationship with his family and his bond with a teacher who believes Charlie is special.

This is a wonderful coming-of-age tale. It's such a cliche to compare every tale of a misfit boy to The Catcher in the Rye, but Charlie's alienation and struggle to find himself are every bit as compelling as in the classic stories of troubled youth, like Catcher. Chbosky's writing style is honest and straightforward. Charlie's desires and inadequacies are palpable. I highly recommend this intelligent and moving novel.

exactly what i wanted, in great condition.
and super cheap!

but it was a little late on shipping...

This book is amazing. It's full of weird things, comedy, and of course some serious stuff. It has changed people's life but it my not change yours. I would recommend this to people 14 yrs. old and up. Also, anyone who has felt alone, scared, or just hasn't been able to fit in anywhere. What it's about is a boy named Charlie (that's not his real name. He doesn't use real ones) who is scared about going into high school. He meets a few people like Patrick and Sam. The story is full of suspense and comedy. It's is great.

My favorite book of all time. An extremely easy read, that you won't want to put down. The format is a little odd to get used to at first, but once you move past that, you can't help but relate with the main character and really connect and root for him.

This was the first book I read because I wanted to. Not because some english teacher said I had to. A man I work with's daughter was given this book by her school as an assignment and told to read it over the summer. The mother of this girl evidently was reading it and the parents were not happy about their daughter reading this book. They said it was too detailed for their 17 year old daughter. So I looked it up on the internet and bought it to read myself.
I think it did it's job as a book. It left me wanting to know more about the boy and at times I couldn't put it down. I laughed out loud yet cried at times. I found myself worrying about him and I really became attached to him. I felt as if I knew him personally. However I do think it is a little too detailed at times for younger readers. Overall I like this book and am glad I read it.
Now I want to read more books!

It took me nearly four years to get around to reading this book and it was definitely worth the wait. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an amazing story that follows a scared and lonely teenage boy through his freshman year of high school: making friends, "discovering" girls, developing an identity, and holding on for dear life in a world much unlike anything he's ever encountered before. For anyone who has ever experienced high school, the book reminds readers just how scary, new and amazing high school can be. The book is a quick read (just over 200 pages) and written in a friendly format that instantly makes the reader empathize with the main character. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a wonderful story that will make you laugh, cry, and reminisce on the good old days of high school. I highly recommend this book.