Does The Perks Of Being A Wallflower Still Hold Up?

Warning: The following review contains some spoilers for the book in question. If you have not read it yet you might want to before continuing forward.

Peter Parker? He’s Midtown High’s Only Professional Wallflower!

-Some girl, Amazing Fantasy #15

In 1999, a fellow by the name of Stephen Chbosky had a book of his published entitled The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.

I had previously heard of Chbosky through making the most mediocre film of all time with 2005’s Rent, and then, according to legend (because lord knows I’m not watching it), topping that with 2017’s Beauty And The Beast. His entire film career seems to be Hollywood going “we’re all gray blobs,” before he responds “but I’m grayer and blobier.”

Still, his novel was a big deal when it was published. It made it on The New York Times bestseller list, has been censored a number of times for its use of homosexuality, sex in general, drugs, and many other controversial topics all around causing the book to generate a large amount of conversation when it was first released. Remember, this was a time where the most mature interpretation you got of these issues was from Kevin Smith — not hating on Smith though, he’s great.