Name: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Rating: 4.210408163265306 (3675 reviews)
ISBN: 9781847394071

Stephen Chbosky

Charlie is a freshman. And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it. Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mixed tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But Charlie can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Ambre

 "Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve."

Abby Lane

Nour

sarina

Emma

sofia

Lorraine

Yoko simons 

Alba

And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.

Sanja.

Romy

And what we perceive as "deserved" usually results not from our intrinsic needs, but from our experiences and interactions with others.

Stephanie 

“Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve.”

darby

Olivia 

foteini

Hedda Victoria

Someone

silke

taylor

I don’t know if you’ve ever felt like that. That you wanted to sleep for a thousand years. Or just not exist. Or just not be aware that you do exist. Or something like that. 

I think wanting that is very morbid, but I want it when I get like this. That’s why I’m trying not to think. I just want it all to stop spinning.

And I wonder if anyone is really happy. I hope they are. I really hope they are. 

So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be. 

Maybe it’s sad that these are now memories. And maybe it’s not sad. 

Elise Fonteyn

Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve.

Rebeca Keren Nuñez

Amélie 

Eszter Baranyi

Chiara Tallir

The Most Moving Coming-Of-age Classic

Perks of Being a Wallflower

Very touching coming-of-age story. The end really made this book for me. 

Alice McWilliams

A coming of age novel about Charlie, a freshman in high school who is a wallflower, shy and introspective, and very intelligent. He deals with the usual teen problems, but also with the suicide of his best friend.

VIVIR al margen ofrece una perspectiva ÚNICA. Pero SIEMPRE llega el momento de entrar en escena y ver el MUNDO desde dentro. Charlie, un chico ingenuo, mordaz y solitario, acaba de empezar el instituto. Vive con sus padres, su popular hermana y un hermano mayor que está a punto de comenzar la universidad. La cosa no pinta demasiado bien el primer día de instituto cuando solo consigue hacer un amigo: un alternativo profesor de Lengua interesado en despertar el genio creativo de Charlie. Cuando conoce a la bella Sam y al excéntrico Patrick, unos chicos llenos de ganas de exprimir la vida al máximo, empieza a comprender lo que es crecer y hacerse adulto. Junto a ellos recorrerá caminos nuevos e inesperados: descubrirá música nueva, empezará a beber, a fumar, a salir de fiesta... e incluso se enamorará por primera vez.

Las ventajas de ser un marginado

kitkat

maravillosa historia, tengo ganas de ver la peli :) 

I read this in 6th grade.  Rereading wasn't all that, but I get why it was so important then...

𐂯 .ᐟ⸝⸝

RYTA VINAGRE

Este livro reúne as cartas de Charlie, um adolescente de quem pouco se sabe - a não ser pelo que ele conta ao amigo nessas correspondências -, que vive entre a apatia e o entusiasmo, tateando territórios inexplorados, encurralado entre o desejo de viver a própria vida e ao mesmo tempo fugir dela. As dificuldades do ambiente escolar, as descobertas dos primeiros encontros amorosos, os dramas familiares, as festas alucinantes e a eterna vontade de se sentir 'infinito' ao lado dos amigos são temas que enchem de alegria e angústia a cabeça do protagonista em fase de amadurecimento.

AS VANTAGENS DE SER INVISIVEL

Esse livro MARCOU meu ano de 2025! Eu ganhei de aniversário de 16 anos e foi incrível. Uma experiência inesquecível! A narrativa toda, o jeito que o Charlie escreve me fez sentir uma intimidade metafísica com ele. Eu me apaixonei pelo Charlie. Fiquei com tantos ciúmes quando ele beijou a Sam. Ele me fez passar muita raiva quando começou a namorar a Elizabeth, porém fiquei feliz quando descobri que ele já havia beijado um garoto na infância, e quando o Patrick beijou ele eu fiquei tão feliz no momento, para logo depois eu ficar triste porque sei que não era nada romântico.... E para no final eu quase vomitar quando descobri o trauma do Charlie, eu não tinha percebido, eu estava tão focado em como ele se sentia e via o mundo que me ceguei aos detalhes, como se eu tivesse a cegueira emocional temporária dele. Fiquei com uma ressaca temporária depois desse livro. Foi recomendação da minha melhor amiga Lih!!! Amo ela, amo esse livro.

Abel Espíndola

If you're a troubled teenager or you feel youre currently in a bad phase of your life where all seems like a slump or you feel like life is being really bumpy, you'd feel very connected about this book. This book is really flawlessly written, perhaps the first book that I have read which made me wanna read the entire book in one flow without taking a single break. You notice how each character has had problems in their life but how they also manage to tackle it in their own different ways. Its not about you making mistakes in life, which a teenager generally feels heavily burdened upon; its about how you end up growing from the mistakes and most importantly; makes you realise you are not alone. 

The later chapters connect with everyone regardless, you do learn that you should be honest with your emotions towards people and how you should display your feelings and emotions yourself to get things going instead of waiting.

I may not recommend this book to an early teenager because of its mature subjects, but if you have grown past the level to accept mature topics; do read the book. You'd get a chance to reflect upon your life via these high school characters and also feel like growing alongside them

Aarush Arora

If you're a troubled teenager or you feel youre currently in a bad phase of your life where all seems like a slump or you feel like life is being really bumpy, you'd feel very connected about this book. This book is really flawlessly written, perhaps the first book that I have read which made me wanna read the entire book in one flow without taking a single break. You notice how each character has had problems in their life but how they also manage to tackle it in their own different ways. Its not about you making mistakes in life, which a teenager generally feels heavily burdened upon; its about how you end up growing from the mistakes and most importantly; makes you realise you are not alone. 

The later chapters connect with everyone regardless, you do learn that you should be honest with your emotions towards people and how you should display your feelings and emotions yourself to get things going instead of waiting.

I may not recommend this book to an early teenager because of its mature subjects, but if you have grown past the level to accept mature topics; do read the book. You'd get a chance to reflect upon your life via these high school characters and also feel like growing alongside them

Highly Recommended.

I sobbed on the plane while reading this. 

shivani karadia

Milan Joseph

uh.. this is the book that kind of make you want to reflect on everything you read, but oh my god. the way the book goes is just so brilliant. i don't know why is this chbosky's only novel or if it is, but its so good. 

Charlie struggles to cope with complex world of high school as he deals with the confusions of sex and love, the temptations of drugs, and the pain of losing a close friend and a favorite aunt.

Was obsessed with this during my teenage years. The book is relatable to every introvert who thinks they don’t fit in.

Somi Patel

Las cartas que escribe Charlie son íntimas y únicas, desternillantes y devastadoras. Puede que no sepamos dónde vive, ni a quién escribe pero, poco a poco, iremos conociendo su mundo a través de ellas: la vida en el instituto, las primeras citas, las cintas de varios, los dramas familiares y los nuevos amigos. Un mundo en el que solo es necesario dar con la canción perfecta mientras conduces para sentirte infinito--p. [4] of cover.

Las ventajas de ser invisible

sofi

Jess

Wow...I feel..raw somehow. I cried a lot, but it also made me laugh and the ending was uplifting.

A series of letters to an unknown correspondent reveals the coming-of-age trials of a high-schooler named Charlie

A series of letters to an unknown correspondent reveals the coming-of-age trials of a high schooler named Charlie.

5/5*
Přesně tohle - PŘESNĚ TOHLE - na knihách a čtení zbožňuju. Jak se autoři skrz slova umí trefit přesně TAM, kde to zabolí. A nejen mě. Ale celou generaci, tisíce, statisíce čtenářů to zabolí a pokaždé trochu jinak, jinde, jindy, ale všichni to CHÁPOU a to je na čtení ta TOP VĚC.

Všechno v téhle knize mi přišlo moc. Až moc. Skvělé, emocionální, rozmyšlené i náhodné - ve všem je to až moc v tom nejlepším slova smyslu.

Nechci nic prozrazovat, protože mi přijde nejlepší po téhle knize prostě sáhnout bez očekávání (jako do každé knihy, jasně, ale u téhle jde o něco jiného v tom, že ať už ostatní budu přesvědčovat o tom, jak realistické a silně působící jsou postavy, příběh poeticky vybarven do detailu i ve smyslu knih, které Charlie čte či jakou hudbu přesně poslouchá, či jaký sloh autor zvolil - jednoduchou metafprickou a symbolistickou, však pro teenagery naprosto logickou a přehlednou formou... zkrátka ať už ostatní budu přesvědčovat jakkoli, přijde mi to zbytečné, protože každý v tom podle mého najde něco naprosto diametrálně odlišného).

Takze jo, fakt se mi to líbilo a i slzy ukáply.

The first book i have ever binged. Will always be very dear to me. 

Bread

Marco yauri 

Speechless, this is my favorite book ever and that's all.

I really enjoyed this book I feel like reading this after watching the movie was the best way to go about it. I feel like I got to know Charlie in passing in the movie and then personally when I read the book. 

Oliver kellett 

Marte Guro

Noi siamo infinito. Ragazzo da parete

Onestamente credevo di essere troppo vecchia per apprezzare questo libro, eppure mi è piaciuto lo stesso. 

Il format in cui è scritto mi ha sicuramente aiutato a digerirlo: probabilmente in forma narrativa non mi sarei ritrovata molto in tutti gli altri personaggi della storia (adolescenti americani.. mh), mentre sotto forma di lettera li ho digeriti meglio, anche perchè emerge principalmente il carattere di chiarlie. Non è tanto il fatto che mi ci sono rivista, quanto più il modo in cui racconta tutto quello che succede che mi ha sorpreso e attirato. 

mirta <3

Onestamente credevo di essere troppo vecchia per apprezzare questo libro, eppure mi è piaciuto lo stesso. 
Il format in cui è scritto mi ha sicuramente aiutato a digerirlo: probabilmente in forma narrativa non mi sarei ritrovata molto in tutti gli altri personaggi della storia (adolescenti americani.. mh), mentre sotto forma di lettera li ho digeriti meglio, anche perchè emerge principalmente il carattere di chiarlie. Non è tanto il fatto che mi ci sono rivista, quanto più il modo in cui racconta tutto quello che succede che mi ha sorpreso e attirato. 

Watched the movie when it came out but couldn’t get past Emma Watson’s American accent. Enjoyed the book a lot more than the film, a dark turn at the end but I really loved Charlie’s complexities. 

Jazz j

With all my being, I’ve come to imbue these three words the passion that, through sheer delusion alone, I’d hope could contain the emotion I’m feeling this quiet night with nothing but placidness all around me: i hate spoilers. this revelation’s come to me at, like, two months ago or something. yet another thing, another variable, for all my insistence that it was my only gripe and enemy when it came to “experiencing” a work at full, has come to my attention. Reading or watching a work, leaving it halfway in for months, maybe a year, and then coming back to finish it in three hours under one night is a type of loss I’ve gone through with this book because, as it stands to me now, i feel nothing, or hardly anything for it. when i closed the book, did you know what i thought? i thought: i guess it’s time for bed. then my body did just that. it never usually does, and i wasn’t even that tired at the time. i can’t tell for myself if it really was just the book itself and not because of how I read it. that it was because i’ve lost interest in the characters or forgotten a huge chunk of the previous chapters or could not, for the death of white lily, attach myself to any words on those page because i was just myself, in that way. i don’t really know. a lot of other people thought this book was good—lifechanging, even. and for all my convincing myself and rebooting my thinking that i shouldn’t think this or that because it’s what everyone else thinks, there should be something or a reason as to why they do, right? well, yeah, that plot twist on aunt helen was definitely something, and i think forgetting a good chunk of the story’s affected my reading experience. so—i dont know. i’m conflicted. with how i read this story and how i feel about it now, and blaming it on the book itself with no concrete feeling or “evidence” as to why i would’ve thought the same, that this book was lacking to me, in a way, just sounds wrong. odd. i’ve had something similar while reading the book thief, and even that experience was ‘spoiled’ by spoilers, so i admittedly wouldn’t know if the if’s i say would be right or not, for all that i know of myself. overall an interesting book, maybe. just never was a big fan of coming-of-age stories, and i always liked stories with big fallouts or established characters in their established lives and established relationships and seeing how the flaws of those relationships—molds in their wooden structures or flimsy adhesives or chipping brick—could change and alter, maybe with the integration of new characters, integration of the main character themselves, integration of a problem or question of inevitably, and letting it speak for itself, what it is. or poke and prod at it as the author wishes, which I also equally love. anyhow this has gone off-topic. good book, recommend, yeah.

south-getaway

read this when i was going through a lot as a teenager and  reread this again while going through a lot again but in my 20s this time and unintentionally. and gosh, this book never left me. forgot how seen i felt by charlie and how much we think alike. the attention to detail with his thought processes and the way his letters are written is so tender so heartful ooouuu i can't believe i ever forgot this. so glad i decided to come back to this so randomly. i think i was meant to

syre

After reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I can honestly say that I liked the book more than the movie, even though they were created by the same person. While the film adaptation was well done, the book simply offered a deeper and more personal experience.

What made the novel stand out to me was how much more it explored Charlie’s experiences and trauma. The letter format made the story feel incredibly intimate and raw, as if Charlie was speaking directly to the reader. Because it was written as letters, everything felt more personal and psychological. We weren’t just watching things happen — we were inside his mind, understanding his thoughts, confusion, and emotional struggles in a much deeper way.

The book also dives further into Charlie’s mental health. His breakdown and repressed trauma weren’t rushed or shortened, which allowed readers to fully understand his psychological state. The detailed descriptions gave more emotional weight to his journey, making his struggles feel real and impactful.

Another reason I preferred the book was the inclusion of small moments and subplots that weren’t fully shown in the movie. These details helped develop the side characters more, allowing readers to truly get to know them. The novel included more of Charlie’s “wallflower” observations — those quiet reflections about people, relationships, and life. The relationship dynamics were also more layered and detailed, which made the connections between characters feel more authentic.

Overall, the book was a more reflective and heavier read compared to the movie. While the film softened some aspects of the story for a broader audience, the novel embraced the rawness of Charlie’s experiences. For me, that honesty and emotional depth made the reading experience much more powerful and meaningful.

After reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I can honestly say that I liked the book more than the movie, even though they were created by the same person. While the film adaptation was well done, the book simply offered a deeper and more personal experience.

What made the novel stand out to me was how much more it explored Charlie’s experiences and trauma. The letter format made the story feel incredibly intimate and raw, as if Charlie was speaking directly to the reader. Because it was written as letters, everything felt more personal and psychological. We weren’t just watching things happen — we were inside his mind, understanding his thoughts, confusion, and emotional struggles in a much deeper way.

The book also dives further into Charlie’s mental health. His breakdown and repressed trauma weren’t rushed or shortened, which allowed readers to fully understand his psychological state. The detailed descriptions gave more emotional weight to his journey, making his struggles feel real and impactful.

Another reason I preferred the book was the inclusion of small moments and subplots that weren’t fully shown in the movie. These details helped develop the side characters more, allowing readers to truly get to know them. The novel included more of Charlie’s “wallflower” observations — those quiet reflections about people, relationships, and life. The relationship dynamics were also more layered and detailed, which made the connections between characters feel more authentic.

Overall, the book was a more reflective and heavier read compared to the movie. While the film softened some aspects of the story for a broader audience, the novel embraced the rawness of Charlie’s experiences. For me, that honesty and emotional depth made the reading experience much more powerful and meaningful.

Claire Maguet

First time rereading since high school, JFC this is so heartbreaking. CHARLIE! 🥺 I will prob reread again in life, just need time to heal my heart. 

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Reviews

Highlights