Summary and Characters

Character List

Charlie: The main character that has a rough time being a freshman in high school.

Sam: A senior that takes Charlie under her wing, along with her stepbrother, Patrick.

Patrick: Sam's stepbrother who is also a senior.  Sam and Patrick help Charlie have a true high school experience.

Mary Elizabeth: One of Sam and Patrick's friends who is very friendly and welcoming to Charlie.

Aunt Helen: One of the closest people to Charlie.  Aunt Helen may have been the only person to love Charlie before she died. 

Bill: Bill is Charlie's English teacher who is very relatable to Charlie.  Throughout the entire school year, Bill gave him many books that Charlie would read in his free time.  Bill was like Charlie's second father with whom he had a very close bond.

Michael: Charlie's best friend, and only friend before high school.  In the beginning of the story, Charlie is still trying to recover from Michael's suicide.

Summary

• Charlie is starting out high school and is very nervous because he has no friends. Michael, his best friend, committed suicide.
• Charlie has had many mental breakdowns in the past and Michael's suicide makes it even worse. Throughout the story he has many mental breakdowns.
• On the very first day of high school he creates a great bond with his english teacher, Bill.
• Later,  Charlie went to the football game even though he knew nobody there. Then, he recognized a guy from his shop class, Patrick, who was with his stepsister, Sam.
• Patrick and Sam ask Charlie to come to a party with them so Charlie can have a real high school experience, and soon enough they all become best friends.
• Charlie definitely saw and experienced things with Patrick and Sam at parties that he had never seen before, and probably shouldn't have seen.
• In this book, Charlie also went on his first date/dance with Mary Elizabeth. He really liked her, but things didn't quite work out.
• Charlie, along with his friends, develope a great love for music. Charlie creates many mixtapes of his favorite songs. He says the songs make him feel "infinite".
• But before Charlie knew it, it was Sam's and Patrick's senior graduation and Charlie was very distraught that his best friends were leaving.
• The night of the graduation was the last party of the school year which Charlie enjoyed because he got to spend a little bit longer with his friends. 
• Charlie now had to find new ways to "participate" (as Bill had taught him to do) without all of his friends.
• He ends up having a severe mental breakdown because everything is changing and all his friends are leaving. He needs to be hospitalized.
• In conclusion, Charlie is released from the hospital and looks for new ways to participate. He is very optimistic about the future and what it might bring.