I first read this book years ago, made a CD ought of the second side of Charlie's tape, and sent it off to all my friends, most of whom had also read and loved the book. It came up in a Library Conference not long afterward, and left me wanting to maim a room full of Young Adult librarians, who viewed the story as nothing more than everything but the kitchen sink. I found this appalling, as they all worked with teens, and here was a book that spoke to so many of them, on top of which it had quickly earned itself a spot amongst my favorites! But regardless of what my parental unit thinks, I do have some tact, and since I figured I was either going to scream or say nothing, I said nothing, much to the amusement of my co-worker, who attended the same discussion and knew I was seething.

I'll admit Charlie is not your stereotypical High School kid. But that's kind of the point. And the bigger point might be, maybe none of them are quite the stereotypical kid you think they are. But Charlie, yes, he's more different than most. Quiet, overly contemplative, and socially unaware, he pretty much keeps to himself until he happens upon Sam and Patrick. After meeting them, he begins to see how nice it can be to have friends, and makes more of an effort to "participate" as his English teacher has advised him to do.

But for the most part, he's still Charlie, and he spends most of his time in a book or in his head. He tries to get outside of himself, but as most people don't understand him, his efforts generally don't take him very far. Indeed, things have to go horribly awry before Charlie realizes that for all his efforts, he's still not being true to himself, or to those he cares about. And this realization leads to an even larger, and more troubling conclusion about his formative years, which he'd rather not have made, but the knowing will at least eventually free him to move forward and truly live his life.