The time that you are in high school is widely regarded as a time that can be one of the most fun and exciting times of your life. However, it can also be a very isolating and scaring experience. Our protagonist, Charlie, is pretty sure he knows which camp he’s going to fall in, and unfortunately, things aren’t too positive. In the first of many letters to an anonymous reader, Charlie writes, “I start high school tomorrow and I am really afraid of going.” (6)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky’s first and only novel) is primarily a story about Charlie’s coming of age. While a tale focusing on the development of a normal high school student would probably be interesting enough: learning to make friends, struggling to balance varied school schedules, navigating lunchtime politics; Charlie’s story is taken to another level. Due to some terrible events outlined in the first few pages of the book, our hero is by no means normal. Because of this, Charlie has to do all of the things a high school student normally does while being a terrible introvert.

Following Charlie’s story and progression is an experience that is both captivating and an emotional investment. One of the reasons, I feel, that it is so successful is that it is told entirely through an epistolary narrative. The novel is composed of nothing but letters written by Charlie in journal format to someone he trusts. Since these letters span his freshman year, we not only get the most personal form of Charlie’s story, we also are treated to an amazing representation of Charlie’s development. He sounds like a real person, whose feelings are genuine and who might have very well spent all night writing the words you are reading. Little things add to the experience, such as an evolution in writing style, and, towards, the end, an occasional vocabulary word or two.

Unfortunately, while Charlie’s character and voice is very strong in The Perks, other characters turn out to be very flat in comparison. It seems as though the main progression in the story stems from Charlie’s adaption to his environment: new friends, new school, new status, etc. Because of this, Charlie’s friends and family undergo very little change from the beginning to the end of the novel, keeping the setting controlled very nicely for Charlie. However, this is a coming-of-age story, and the development of the protagonist is the primary focus. Charlie’s friends and family’s lack of progression matters little in the grand scheme of things, even though a little extra development never did anybody any harm.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is almost a contradiction. On one hand, it’s very simple and easy to comprehend. On the other, it has themes that could take hours to decipher. However, no matter who the reader is, everybody has been in Charlie’s shoes before. While we may not have shared all of his experiences in a literal sense, I believe that, in principle, we’ve all felt lonely, we’ve all made bad decisions, and we’ve all tried to be accepted. This is one of The Perks’s major strengths: Because we can all relate to Charlie, and subconsciously, we all really want him to succeed. This is how we get really invested into a story, I think, someday we may find The Perks of Being a Wallflower on the classic shelves of bookstores, beckoning all of the misfit and awkward teenagers out there to come see what a truly awful, but rewarding high school experience can look like.