The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Publication and reception

The Perks of Being a Wallflower was first published on February 1, 1999[19] by Pocket Books through its MTV Books imprint.[20] It became the subsidiary's best-selling book with 100,000 copies in print as of 2000,[20] and was included on school reading lists and gathered a cult following.[21] By 2012, the novel had been published in 16 countries in 13 languages,[22] and that same year it placed at number 16 on NPR's list of the "100 Best-Ever Teen Novels.'[23]

Critical response was mixed; Publishers Weekly called the novel "trite," dealing with "standard teenage issues" in which "Chbosky infuses a droning insistence on Charlie's supersensitive disposition."[24] Although Kirkus Reviews said it had "the right combination of realism and uplift," the reviewer criticized Chbosky's "rip-off" of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.[25] Although other reviewers made similar comparisons, Chbosky said he "was not trying to mimic [Salinger's] style as a writer";[3] he saw "how readers could compare Charlie to [Salinger's] Holden Caulfield," but "they are very different people with unique problems and perspectives.'[3] More positive was Francisca Goldsmith of the School Library Journal, who said the novel "cleverly" makes the readers the recipients of Charlie's letters, and it "will engage teen readers for years to come."[26] Common Sense Media's Kate Pavao praised its relevant themes for teenagers: "Readers will find themselves quickly feeling sorry for the protagonist and worrying about him throughout his transformative journey."[19] For The A.V. Club, Marah Eakin wrote that although for an adult "Perks suffers from an overabundance of pure, raw angst ... unlike some more arrested development-friendly young adult fare like Harry Potter, Perks speaks to a more specific age range and does it well."[27]

Censorship in the United States

The Perks of Being a Wallflower has appeared six times on the American Library Association's (ALA) list of 10 most frequently challenged books for its content: 2004 (5), 2006 (8), 2007 (10), 2008 (6), 2009 (3), 2013 (8), 2014 (8),[28] and 2022 (5).[29] Additionally, it was the tenth most banned and challenged book between 2000 and 2009[30] and the fourteenth most banned and challenged book between 2010 and 2019.[31] Reasons for censorship include content considered to be anti-family, sexually explicit, and content involving homosexuality, offensive language, drugs and alcohol, nudity, descriptions of masturbation, and suicide.[28][32]

There have been multiple pushes in the US to move Perks to the adult section.[33][34] Parents have raised issues with the novel for its "pornographic" content and "vulgarity," but others have argued that the book deals with real and common teen issues concerned with growing up, so it presents a truthful viewpoint.[35] In 2013, the Glen Ellyn District 41 school board in suburban Chicago unanimously voted to reinstate the novel after it was removed from eighth-grade classrooms at Hadley Junior High School because of a parent's objection to its sexual content.[36]

I didn’t write it to be challenged. I didn’t write it to be a controversial book. I can’t really take it as a point of pride because it was banned someplace. The first time it happened, it was... well, exciting isn’t the right word, but I thought, 'Wow, it’s getting all this attention.' And I did think it was kind of exciting, that it was being talked about that way. But after a time, you start to realize that the argument is always the same. I no longer find the argument exciting, and it’s certainly not a matter of pride. It’s more of mourning the fact that people can’t agree to disagree, and people can’t find common ground. The people who object for moral reasons cannot see the value of the book, and the people who see the value of the book don’t realize why it’s upsetting to more religious people.

— Stephen Chbosky, Word Riot, 2011[14]

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