Funny, enlightening, sympathetic and timeless—“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky is truly a book for everybody in high school.

The story is about a freshman named Charlie who is having a tough time starting his high school career.   The book tells his emotional journey, as Charlie is an awkward, quiet and intelligent bookworm. He eventually meets Sam and Patrick. Sam and Patrick are two seniors at Charlie’s high school who open his eyes to the process of learning about himself but also about the importance of self forgiveness.

Throughout the story, Charlie is not the only character under incredible stress. The two seniors of the story, Sam and Patrick, are themselves dealing with the pressures and emotions of being seniors.  This makes the story great, then, for freshmen and seniors because the story shows Sam in her excitement for college but also her fears of losing connections to her high school friends. Coming off as less serious about his education than many other students, Patrick is facing the possibility of failing his senior year.

The best aspect of this book is the writing style. The author writes the story in such a way that Charlie, Sam and Patrick are all realistic high school students I have not read about in other books. The writing style can be described as believable, emotional, insightful and even a bit dark without the plot becoming that of something in a soap opera.

Throughout the novel, the characters reveal layers of themselves, and this is what makes the characters realistic in every sense, as they are multidimensional and march to the beat of their own drum rather than following what is popular. This story proves to be timeless.  While the characters are a product of their time (the 90s), their feelings and actions are current.

If reading is not your thing, the movie version of this book is just as captivating. In fact, it could even be recognized as one of the most faithful adaptations that I have ever seen. It also stays true to the characters and the theme, so you can get the same experience on two different platforms of art.

I give this novel a 4.5/5 pages for being realistic and emotional without being overly done. The only reason it does not receive a perfect five is that there are some intense situations that could make some readers uncomfortable.