The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a novel written by Stephen Chbosky (this sounds like: "Stiven Shebosky") and released in 1999. Each chapter of the book is a letter written by the main character, a boy of 15 called Charlie, to an unnamed friend. When you read the book, this gives the feeling that Charlie is writing to you.
Like many teens, Charlie is not happy in his family, for example because he doesn’t think he can be as successful as his older brother. He also has problems with his sister Candace because he dislikes her boyfriend.
When he goes to high school, his favorite class is English literature. He doesn’t know how to make friends and feels lonely: he is a "wallflower". Unexpectedly, a boy in a higher class, Patrick, and his stepsister Sam connect with him and bring him into their group of friends. He goes out with them and has many new experiences: friendship, parties, drugs, love, sex, etc. For example, he successfully defends Patrick from five boys and he helps his sister Candace when she gets pregnant by her boyfriend. All this he writes down in the "letters to a friend" that make up the book.
By and by, we the readers find out that Charlie has serious problems in his mind, because of something bad that happened when he was a child. It is connected with his aunt Helen, who died in a car accident when she went to buy a birthday gift for Charlie. When Charlie and Sam kiss and she touches him sexually, he gets "flashbacks" of those old memories, which are so strong and confusing that he ends up in a mental hospital. There he is helped to remember and overcome that wound from the past. His family also understands him better now, and it looks like a new, better phase of his life has started.
In the book, the English teacher gives Charlie books to read that he thought he would enjoy. One of these books is "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger, which Chbosky says was an inspiration for him to write "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". Also some music titles had inspired him, for example <nowiki>"</nowiki>Asleep" from "The Smiths".
Stephen Chbosky was born in Pittsburgh, the same town where "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" plays. He has said that much of what Charlie writes about in the book is based on what he, the author, has experienced himself.
The book was published on 1 February 1999 by Pocket Books and was later translated in 13 languages and sold in 16 countries all over the world, especially when a film based on the book was made in 2012.
Charlie writes letters anonymously, he changes all the names, that way the reader won't find out who he is. And all of them are sent to someone because he wants for someone to listen and understand him. He explains his life through these letters. Firstly, he talks about his friend Michael who killed himself. Charlie does not understand why he did it, but he is really emotional because of it. Charlie is told that one of the reasons why he killed himself is because of “problems at home”. Charlie starts to ask himself if he is in a similar position, then he introduces his family members and relationship with them. He mentions his aunt Helen who was his favorite person, however she died. Charlie is about to start high school, and he is nervous about it. He doesn't like high school and finds it completely different from middle school. He realizes that everybody has changed and they behave differently with him. He feels lonely and wants to have friends. He has a good relationship with his teacher Bill, who believes that he has a great skill at reading and understanding language. Charlie talks about his sister and her boyfriend, who fight a lot. He one time catches them having sex, but he is too innocent to understand.
Charlie goes to the football game, that he used to go to with his dead friend Michael. There he meets Patrick and Sam for the first time. Patrick and Sam are step siblings and Charlie develops a crush on Sam, but Sam has no interest in Charlie. After thinking a lot about girls and couples he goes to Bill and tells him what is bothering him: his sister’s boyfriend Derek had hit her. When the teacher talks about it with their parents, the dad does not allow his daughter to see Derek anymore and she gets mad with Charlie. At that moment, Charlie has a flashback of his past, in which a girl is raped by a guy in his room in front of him. Charlie goes to a party with his new friends, Sam and Patrick, where he gets stoned for the first time. He then tells Sam, how his only friend Michael died. After that night, everyone calls him Wallflower.
Charlie talks for the first time about Mary Elisabeth. He then explains Patrick and Brads complete story, of how they met and how Brad went through a very rough phase at the beginning of their relationship. He talks about his possibilities for jobs in the future and how he is momentarily working for Mary Elisabeth writing a newspaper of a play, Sam and Patrick play in. Charlie recalls memories with Michael. Charlie and his friends play a "secret Santa" together, where Charlie reads out a poem that Michael gave to him, however he does not know that it was written by Michael.
Sam and Patrick are visiting the Grand Canyon, so Charlie is alone. Soon it is Christmas and Charlies birthday. He hates it, because it is the day where his aunt Helen died, so it is a hard time for him. Charlie feels very guilty for her death, because she died in a car accident while buying him a birthday present. For Christmas, Charlie goes with his family to the family of his dad. In his old room, he thinks a lot about his family and about Helen. His mother is very worried about him, because after the death of Helen he had to go to the hospital and had to talk with a doctor. Charlie still sometimes has panic attacks when he thinks too much about it. After visiting Helen’s grave, he feels better but is still missing her. When Charlie drives to a New Year’s Eve party he finally sees Sam and Patrick again.
Charlie writes letters to an unknown person. He tells about his family and about his past. Charlie is very happy, because the conversation with his psychiatrist makes him very happy. Charlie talks with his friends about his psychiatrist, the Beatles, and more. Charlie writes about an awkward situation. He got an erection in class and had to go to the blackboard. He was only wearing a swimsuit so you could see his erection. Charlie also asked a girl for a date, but she does not want to answer him and be alone. Then he went with another girl to the prom, which then ran away. When he came home, he suddenly heard his sister crying again because she was pregnant.
Charlie asked his dad for the car, because he was going to have another date with Mary Elisabeth. That night, dad came to his room and talked about sex to Charlie. Then they went to the record store and had first sex there. Since they were together, Mary Elisabeth was calling Charlie every day. Charlie's parents invited Sam and Patrick for a dinner, Mary Elisabeth asked to join them. After that, Charlie came to find his sister and brother to ask, how to deal with Mary Elisabeth. Next day in school, Mary Elisabeth gave Charlie a book, but he returned it to the book store. Then he regretted and got it back and brought Mary Elisabeth a gift. On Friday, they had a party in Craig's house and they played "Truth or Dare", Charlie chose a dare and had to kiss the most beautiful girl in the room. Without thinking, he kissed Sam, and after that the relationship between him and Mary Elizabeth was broken and the entire group told him they didn’t want to see him anymore.