Perks of Being a Wallflower

Title: Perks of Being a Wallflower
Author: Chbosky, Stephen
Publication: Pocket Books, NY 1999

Reason, Type, & Setting: Many of my friends have read this book last year and after scanning through the book it seemed like it would be interesting to read. This story is uniquely told through letters by a boy who wants to remain anonymous. However, in his letters he refers to himself as Charlie. Throughout the novel, we do not know who these letters are being sent to or where the setting takes place, but these letters are sent during the span of 1991 - 1992. I would classify this book under teen-fiction and teen personal development, somewhat a coming of ages story.

Plot: The story starts off with a boy who identifies himself as Charlie, since he wants to remain unknown. The first page gives insight as to what kind of story it is, in my opinion. The beginning is narrated by Charlie through a compilation of letters sent to an anonymous person, or in this case, the reader. At the start of freshman year Charlie was known as the wallflower, hence the name of the book, and even his teacher noticed his lack of participation in social events and in class. Thus, the teacher gains interest in Charlie and sees something in him that other people may have not seen and starts to give Charlie extra reading material and asks for an analysis type book report of what he reads. An important event that shapes Charlie is meeting Sam and Patrick. The plot is hard to describe in this case since it is basically the life of Charlie. But the main point of this story is Charlie's personal growth through a span of one year and how your teenage years can shape you.

Character: I really like stories like this since you get a really good insight as to what the character's personality and emotions are as well as there personal development/growth. Charlie feels like he doesn't know what path to take in life and just decides to go with the flow.

Evaluation: Overall, I'd say that this book seemed more of something I would read maybe when I was about his age, 14. I thought the author's style of writing made it very enjoyable to read since it was in the form of letters but I'm not entirely sure if I really really liked this book. But the author is excellent at portraying character development. It reminded me of Catcher in the Rye in a way but not at that level. However, I think I'd recommend this book to others.

Author/Trivia/Context: Stephen Chbosky was in fact heavily influenced by J.D Salinger who is the writer of The Catcher in the Rye. This is Chbosky's first novel and is a director.