The Perks of Being a Wallflower: Review

When I decided to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, for the first time, I knew going into it that it would be a hard book to fully absorb due to the level of reality and blunt, teenage, mentally ill mentality that it expresses through the main character’s point of view, in the format of letters written to an unknown targeted audience. The book explores the narrator’s transition into adolescence and young adulthood during early high school years. The book focuses mainly on the life of one teen and shows the struggle of growing up and living through high school years under the pressure of mental illness, peer pressure, and finding yourself in a mentality far away from anyone else.

One of the main, most looked over conflicts in the book is Charlie’s, the narrator’s, devolving and dissasociated mental state in the letters, compared to how he appears to his friends and classmates, most of whom overlook him entirely or take him to be in a stable mindset. Since the narrator had been so overlooked throughout his life, even by family, he was never able to feel like he fit into any community, but after meeting Sam and Patrick, he realized that being a wallflower might not be such a bad thing after all. With his newly found acquaintances, Charlie explores his adolescence and personality in a way that he never had before. He was able to attend parties, experience his first real kiss, and deconstruct what it means to be a true high schooler, all while feeling very distant in his emotions. While realizing that this feeling of distance might not be normal, the narrator experiments and explores his boundaries, human connection, and even a first love. Slowly, Charlie becomes okay with being not okay, and over time, develops a sense of belonging with his new friends while he accepts that he might never be above average. In my experience, most teenagers can relate to the narrator, in that everyone, at some point in their lives, feels like they do not belong, and that feeling is much stronger with some than with others. Teenagers can relate not only because we, as teenagers, sometimes do not belong, but we have to learn to be content with ourselves as people and the things that we cannot change, including out mindset, loves, and hopes, which was one of Charlie’s biggest mental obstacles throughout his high school years.

To me, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, as a whole, is even more than an extremely powerful book. I personally believe that every person, teenagers and adults alike, should have the opportunity to read this book at some point throughout their lives, because everyone will undoubtedly take something away from this book, even if it’s only to write letters to themselves sometimes, or to put their emotions, troubles, loves, and grievances onto paper as a means to express themselves and let their feelings flow freely to someone who will never judge.

Author: Maggie Wimberly

When I was twelve-ish, I decided that just dreaming up ideas wasn't enough. I started writing as soon as I realized that. Writing, to me, is not just a form of self-expression, but also an escape. It becomes a portal to wherever I want, wherever I need to be. It isn't something to be filtered or censored by authority figures, because there is no point in putting your words out there just for them to be distilled. I write because it is something that I can do alone, during downtime, or in collaboration with other writers, and the flexibility of it all makes it irresistible.