View source for The Perks of Being a Wallflower

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{{Infobox book
 | title = The Perks of Being a Wallflower
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 | author = Stephen Chbosky
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 | genre = 
 | publication date = February 1, 1999
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{{quote|''"And in that moment, I swear we were infinite."''|'''The book's most famous quote.'''}}

The first novel by Stephen Chbosky. It was first published in 1999.

The narrator, 16-year-old Charlie, is just starting high school as a freshman, having been held back a couple of years for reasons of being in the hospital due to being emotionally damaged. The novel primarily concerns Charlie's adventures in the '91-'92 school year, and is written as an [[Epistolary Novel]], a collection of letters Charlie is writing to a friend-of-a-friend whom he was told would be a good listener. Charlie, who doesn't excel at much except reading, seems to be off to a bad start before two seniors, step-siblings Patrick and Sam, take him under their wing. And so begins Charlie's adventures into school, literature, dating, [[Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll]], teen pregnancy, [[Suicide (band)|suicide]] and ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]''.

The book was well-received and essentially the literary version of a [[Killer App]] for its publisher, the newly-launched MTV Books. It has drawn comparisons to ''[[The Catcher in The Rye]]'', primarily for being a pull-no-punches look at high school and for having a [[Point of View|First-Person Narrator]]. It also placed 6th on 2008's List Of Most Frequently Banned Books, for similar reasons.

A movie, written, directed, and produced by Chbosky, was released in 2012. [[Logan Lerman]] and [[Emma Watson]] play Charlie and Sam respectively, and [[Mae Whitman]] plays Mary Elizabeth.

Chbosky wrote ''[[Imaginary Friend (novel)|Imaginary Friend]]'' as a follow-up to this novel; it was published in 2019.

{{tropelist}}
* [[Ambiguous Disorder]]: Charlie is just said to be "emotionally disturbed".
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]
* [[Brutal Honesty]]: Charlie picks ''the worst'' possible time to invoke this when asked in a Truth or Dare game to {{spoiler|"kiss the prettiest girl". He kisses Sam}}.
* [[California Doubling]]: Averted. Most of the locations for the movie, right down to the theater where they see ''[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show]]'', are filmed in their original locations in [[Pittsburgh]].
* [[Camp Gay]]: Patrick, mostly when contrasted with Brad.
* [[Cool Teacher]]: Charlie's English teacher Bill.
* [[A Date with Rosie Palms]]: Charlie learns about what masturbation is at one point. This leads to an incredibly [[Narm|narmful]] passage in which he describes it in awe opening one of his letters.
* [[Double Standard Rape (Female on Male)]]: averted by the nightmares {{spoiler|Charlie}} suffers after being sexually abused.
* [[Dysfunction Junction]]
* [[Epistolary Novel]]: Charlie is writing these letters to someone. Evidently he just started sending them without any prior correspondence.
* [[First Girl Wins]]
* [[First Kiss]]: Sam to Charlie. She specifies that even though she has a boyfriend and sees Charlie strictly as a friend, she want his first kiss to be with someone he loves ({{spoiler|see [[Rape as Backstory]] below}}).
* {{spoiler|[[Good Girls Avoid Abortion]]}}: Averted by {{spoiler|Charlie's sister}}.
* [[Invisible to Gaydar]]: Brad.
* [[Jerk Jock]]: Brad has shades of this, and pretty much evolves into a full-fledged one {{spoiler|when his dad catches him and Patrick and beats the shit out of him}}.
* [[A Man Is Not a Virgin]]: Averted. Charlie is.
* [[May-December Romance]]: While Charlie was held back a couple grades and should have been a junior, he's still a freshman dating a senior (Mary Elizabeth).
* [[No Name Given]]: Charlie's sister never has a name mentioned out loud, nor do his parents or brother. And for that matter, there's hints that "Charlie" is a pen name adopted for reasons of anonymity (Charlie's sister has been named "Candace" in the film, probably for reasons of practicality).
* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted. Charlie's English teacher, Bill, shares a name with the limo driver for prom (Billy).
* [[Rape as Backstory]]: {{spoiler|Sam was molested, if not outright raped, as a young girl by a friend of her father}}. Also, Charlie's aunt was raped as a young girl, which [[Freudian Excuse|led to her having serious psychological issues]], which is why {{spoiler|she herself molested Charlie}}.
* [[Their First Time]]: Both versions are played straight: an unanticipated tryst is interrupted by something.
* [[Twenty Minutes Into the Past]]: Published in 1999, takes place over the '91-92 school year.
* [[Wanton Cruelty to the Common Comma]]: When learning how to punctuate, Charlie scatters punctuation all over that day's letter. The next day he apologizes (...it was funny at the time).

{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:The Nineties]]
[[Category:Lit Fic]]
[[Category:Films of the 2010s]]
[[Category:Small Genres and Unclassified Literature]]
[[Category:Independent Films]]
[[Category:Film]]
[[Category:Literature]]
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