The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Starting the "Perks of Being a Wallflower" I wondered what was so special about this boy who was going into High School. He seemed like a regular student who was smart, and read a lot. He seemed like he had a normal family. He went through a hard time, yes, because his friend died, which definitely affected him in some way, but nothing too significant to make him stand out more than any other High School student.
Charlie, as he calls himself, meets Patrick and Sam, who are both seniors at his High School, like his sister. I found it normal that he thought an upper class-men, like Sam was beautiful, that just seems typical to me. I thought he was a gentlemen when he listened to what she said when she said she couldn't like him like that. Patrick and Sam were his real only friends and with out them I don't think he could have possibly made it as far as he did.
I am not going to lie the book did start to confuse me, I wasn't sure what was going on but I did see foreshadowing. Like the story of how his mother and aunt used to get hit by there father, and his Aunt Helen was molested by a family friend.
The one thing that did suprise me was how he kept going back to the death of his Aunt Helen. Sure peoples aunts and uncles die everyday but why was he always going back to her grave when he felt lost? Especially because he mentioned the time when his Aunt Helen slapped him, it wasn't made clear just yet why he always talked about her.
Through out the book there is a lot of talk about parties, drugs, relationship problems, etc. which could have effected Charlie in some way, but I still didn't think that is why he was going through such a weird time.
Bill, Charlie's English teacher seemed like more of a friend than a teacher, but I think if Charlie didn't have him he might not have made it as far as he has. For example Bill was the one who gave Charlie all those books to read which, most of the time, kept Charlie's mind off of crying all the time.