The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written by Stephen Chbosky, tells the story of Charlie, a freshman in high school who is trying to figure out how to live his life right.  Readers relive ninth grade through letters Charlie writes about anything and everything he encounters in this strange new world.  The letters are not necessarily written to anyone, and where Charlie lives is unknown.  He gives little information about himself, except for the details of his story.

Charlie is an anti-social loser who stays in every Friday night until he meets Sam, a beautiful and confident high school senior, and her step brother, Patrick, who is also a senior and a carefree, loving guy.  These two influence Charlie’s life more than anyone has before.  They bring him out with them, introduce him to a whole new crowd of people and teach him things his mother would disapprove of.  Patrick and Sam serve as role models for Charlie, but also as his best friends.  They are the ones who provide Charlie with the knowledge that corrupts his “innocent little boy” personality.  Charlie has no shame asking them for help, and they have no problem setting him straight with what to do.  Through new experiences and new friends, Charlie comes to the conclusion that his once beloved aunt is now the enemy.  At the point of this realization, Charlie becomes mentally unstable and overwhelmed with everything he has taken in. He lands himself in a hospital to recover from this roller coaster of a year.  However, Charlie learns more about life in this single year than he probably ever will; and from then on, he will never fail to be infinite.

On September 21, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is being transferred over to the big screen.  Logan Lerman stars as Charlie with Emma Watson (Sam) and Ezra Miller (Patrick) at his side.  Readers are excited to see this story finally being made into a movie so that they are able to see what goes on inside Charlie’s head.  Chbosky wrote the screenplay for this film and is also the director of it, so little details that are usually switched when a book is made into a movie should not be apparent.  In an interview with Chbosky, he says that making this book into a movie has been “a dream come true.”  He also states that when he began to write this book 20 years ago, he had in mind that it would one day become a movie.

The soundtrack includes songs by David Bowie, The Smiths, Sonic Youth and many more well-known singers and music groups.  The movie has been rated PG-13 because of many of the issues Charlie encounters on his road to becoming infinite.  Be sure to check out The Perks in theaters on September 21.