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Stephen Chbosky

The Perks of Being a Wallflower: the most moving coming-of-age classic Paperback – 22 August 2012

by Stephen Chbosky (Author)

14,576 ratings

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Charlie is a freshman. And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it. Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But Charlie can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

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Product details

Publisher : Simon & Schuster UK; Film Tie-In edition (22 August 2012)
Language : English
Paperback : 240 pages
ISBN-10 : 1471100480
ISBN-13 : 978-1471100482
Dimensions : 13 x 1.5 x 19.81 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 338,543 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 21,363 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction

Customer Reviews:
14,576 ratings

Product description

About the Author

Stephen Chbosky wrote and directed the feature film adaptation of his award-winning novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. He has worked in film and television, on projects including the film version of the smash-hit musical Rent; the TV show Jericho; and others. He also edited Pieces, a collection of short stories for Pocket Books. A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Chbosky graduated from the University of Southern California’s Filmic Writing Program. His first film, The Four Corners of Nowhere, premiered at Sundance Film Festival. Follow Stephen on Twitter @StephenChbosky.

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5 star		80%
4 star		13%
3 star		5%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from Australia

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barbara gorman

A message of hope...

Reviewed in Australia on 16 February 2021

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It's my second time reading this book, and I'm glad I did. It's got a closet full of issues, but the core message of taking up a space and finding your own voice makes the book simple and important. It's 25 years old, but as relevant as ever. I recommend it for sure.

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Kindle Customer

Good for young readers.

Reviewed in Australia on 6 October 2020

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Good story for young readers going through a hard time with mental health. One of the few that had an appropriate ending.

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Shez Fordham

Great read about growing up

Reviewed in Australia on 25 February 2018

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Chbosky creates a world that allows the reader to walk in Charlie’s shoes and in the process discover the ‘Charlie’ in ourselves.

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Kindle Customer

Profound

Reviewed in Australia on 6 April 2019

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Loved the evolution of Charlie's writing style and the themes touched upon. A great read for teenagers and adults alike

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Will

Simple, but powerful

Reviewed in Australia on 17 May 2018

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I really liked it. There was something breathtakingly pure to it.

As Charlie likes to say, I felt infinite.
--

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Jazz

take your time the book is short

Reviewed in Australia on 19 June 2020

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Great book, allow you to Vulnerable.
Also watch the movie to get a fuller picture.

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Amazon Customer

Get the tissue box ready

Reviewed in Australia on 25 June 2014

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This book has a great storyline and a very relatable book at points. This book hits all the nerves and makes you want to keep reading (I read this in 8 hours, I am 13, but a fast reader) :)

One person found this helpful

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V Scott

A good read

Reviewed in Australia on 21 September 2019

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Loved the mystery, who is the protagonist writing to?

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Boingboing

I'm not sure there were too many perks.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 September 2018

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It's not always easy being a teenager. I get that. It's also not easy being a reader who's left thinking "So what was all the fuss about?" when they finish a book that felt much too long, said too little, and left me with a general sense that there were too many unanswered questions but they weren't questions I could really be bothered to try to figure out.

Epistolary novels are not unusual; it's a well worn trope for a soul-revealing look at life. But WHO is Charlie supposed to be writing to? I was waiting for a big reveal, expecting a 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' type shocker where we'd find out that there either was no 'friend' or that the friend was his dead aunt, a past abuser, his psychiatrist or just anybody who actually had a part in the book. He refers to a psychologist but never clarifies WHY he sees one, hints at anger management issues and then turns into an avenging ninja when his friend is attacked. It's all just a bit of a mess. Throw in just about everything that could happen to a group of teens - drugs, alcohol, pregnancy, suicide......... - it's like the author had a check-list of big issues to shoe-horn into the story. Where was anorexia and bulimia? I think I missed those but the rest of the angst-bag was emptied out and thrown around.

It's not all bad. I enjoyed the friendship between Charlie, Sam and Patrick but even that had its dysfunctional elements. I enjoyed being reminded of the joy of the mixed tape - what DO teens do these days? Swap 'play lists'? I enjoyed some of the Rocky Horror Show reminders - but there was TOO much. And I liked the perspective of the child-like innocent observing and reporting.

I can see that arty teens will LOVE this book - just as generations before them loved 'Catcher in the Rye' but from what I recall, not that much actually happened in that either. Reviewers suggest the film may make more sense than the book. I'm really not sure that I can be bothered.

14 people found this helpful

Rebecca

I didn’t hate it, but I just didn’t feel it was for me

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 November 2019

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“We accept the love we think we deserve.”

I’ve seen nothing but good things about this book but never given it a try. The internet is full of quotes from the story and I think you’d be hard pushed to find someone who’s never at least heard of the title (this book has more than 1 million ratings on Goodreads and the film was well reviewed too).

Charlie is a socially awkward freshman, writing letters to an unnamed friend. He tells his friend absolutely everything, from his homework assignments to his first erection and so much more.

Image result for the perks of being a wallflower
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This is a short book, but it is packed with some difficult and heavy subjects including suicide, domestic abuse, drug use, rape and abortion.

I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I had wanted to, and I found the writing style and structure to be somewhat tiring. Charlie writes with innocence and the author has chosen his sentence structure and grammar to represent this. I understand the technique and have really enjoyed other books like this in the past, but on top of those tricky subjects, this didn’t make for an easy or enjoyable read.

“I don’t think that there is a favorite kid in our family. There are three of us and I am the youngest. My brother is the oldest. He is a very good football player and likes his car."

Another point I’m somewhat frightened to admit to you all is that I didn’t feel sad and I wasn’t really affected by this book in any way. Am I too cold-hearted? Probably! 🙈

I felt the story was a little too melodramatic for my tastes, but I certainly understand why people love it. I also give it huge credit for addressing these topics, especially those so increasingly faced by teenagers today. I think that if I had read this when I was younger, I’d probably have enjoyed it a lot more but at this point in my life, it wasn’t for me.

Overall rating: Contrary to popular opinion, I didn’t love “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and the writing style was most responsible for this. I didn’t hate it, but I just didn’t feel it was for me – 2 stars.

7 people found this helpful

No_Spoiler_Sean

The Wallflower is dead, long live the Catcher in the Rye...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 April 2019

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Read April 2019.

I struggled to get excited about this book. We know Charlie is a wallflower and was traumatised earlier in his life by what happened with Aunt Helen, and that he is coming of age in the early 1990's. Yet despite all this it didn't quite add up for me.

We spend a year with Charlie and all these events happen to him, yet not until the very end did he try and alter his behaviour or try and steer in a slightly different direction. It just seemed to be more of the same. I know when I was young and impressionable and wanted to please people I tried to act differently to fit in. Where as Charlie was very emotional, not afraid who saw him being emotional, and constant in his thoughts and actions.

I think I tired of the letter style too, as it became repetitive after a while. I hoped the recipient would be revealed at some point but frustratingly it never was. Here's my theories:

Surely nobody writes this many letters! I'd say Charlie was closest to Sam (love interest), then Patrick (friend), then Bill (teacher friend) - all above his family. He never referred to talking about these letters with any of his friends or family. So I was thinking maybe he was writing them to himself, but he did post them, and I'm sure he would have mentioned his family becoming suspicious at the amount of letters. There is chance he was using an alias so it wasn't Charlie at all, just another member of the group of friends? But that still doesn't answer who the recipient was. Whoever it was I also feel they would have made some effort to contact Charlie, or contact the polic e to block his mail, but neither happened!

I appreciate this book is aimed at young adult, and as a 40 something not aimed at me. But I hasten to add, I'm a massive, massive fan of Catcher in the Rye which is a similar style and age group, yet far superior in my opinion. I found 'Catcher' more genuine, witty and in a better writing style and format.

7 people found this helpful

Sami-Mae

Incredible

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 26 January 2020

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Absolutely loved this book, it's one that stays with you. Kudos for having a male protagonist struggling with MH issues as well, as this genre is heavily female-focussed and it's good to remember that both genders can suffer from this equally.

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The book is considerably more explicit than the more well known film adaptation. There are explicit scenes of rape and it deals heavily with the consequences of childhood sexual abuse. It doesn't take away from the impact of the book, but I was a little blindsided as I hadn't realised that it would be different from the movie. I would exercise caution giving this to a younger reader, as it appears suitable for teens but some of this content might not be appropriate depending on the person.

5 people found this helpful

Dini

Heartbreaking and eye-opening but just not 100% for me...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 July 2020

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I FEEL SO CONFLICTED.

Maybe this is a case of reading a book too late? Am I too old to get it and be hip? I don’t know. This book has a massive almost cult like following and I really wanted to fall as deeply in love with it as everyone else seems to have done. But it just didn’t happen for me; that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this book at all, it just left me feeling kinda whelmed?

There were parts that had me going “wow, sht yeah, I absolutely feel that 100%—I’m absolutely with you Charlie!” And other points that had me confused as to how how I should feel about Charlie’s character and his penchant for crying every few minutes and his unbelievable naïveté for someone who’s supposedly a straight-A, highly intellectual young adult?

I think this book also needs a few content warnings because it can be triggering. I read parts of this when I was feeling overwhelmed with anxiety and I had to put this down because it added to my anxiety and made me feel worse. 😔 There's no doubt that I would've probably loved this book as a teen drowning in her woe and angst, but (and I'm sad to say it but) I feel like I might've missed the boat on this one.

One person found this helpful

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower: the most moving coming-of-age classic Paperback – 22 August 2012

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