The perks of being a wallflower is a young adult coming of age epistolary novel by american writer stephen chbosky which was first published on february 1 1999 by pocket books set in the early 1990s the novel follows charlie an introverted observing teenager through his freshman year of high school in a pittsburgh suburb. Now a major motion picture starring logan lerman and emma watson the perks of being a wallflower is a funny touching and haunting modern classic the critically acclaimed debut novel from stephen chbosky perks follows observant wallflower charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood first dates family drama and new friends sex drugs . The perks of being a wallflower is stephen chboskys first novel and was published in 1999 it is young adult fiction and a coming of age tale told from the perspective of charlie a freshman in high school. The perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky is an epistolary novel where the narrator is a young introvert boy called charlie the story revolves around series of letters written by charlie to an anonymous person mentioning his experiences