The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Stephen Chbosky 1999

Devastation Rating

Emotionally Ruined
trauma mental health literary fiction friendship loss

Our Take

Charlie writes letters to a stranger and they accumulate into something broken and beautiful. Chbosky writes adolescent pain without condescension — the trauma is real, the loneliness is vast, the hunger for connection so large it nearly swallows the novel. The thing that is not said until it is said changes everything.

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