Charlie is a shy and introverted teenage boy, a wallflower who always stays on the outskirts of action. We learn about him through the letters he writes to someone with an unspecified name, age, and gender, a stylistic technique that adds to the heart-wrenching sincerity of the story. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are unique, funny, and devastating. Charlie faces many familiar difficulties from school years, from trying to make friends, his first love, experimental relationships with drugs and sexuality, but he also has to deal with his best friend’s suicide and a shocking realization about his beloved Aunt Helen, which challenges his very reality. This is a funny, touching, and unforgettable debut novel that accurately captures the voice of a boy balancing on the brink of adulthood.