User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
i read this in high school and went "oh my god...i'm never doing acid" and then went " how can anyone pretend this is a real diary?!" and then ate lsd-laced peanuts, locked myself in a closet, pulled out all of my hair and woke up three weeks later in a hospital bed..."what happened?" crap crap crap...this book is crap. plotline:
1. i'm a good girl
2. i'm going to a party...with boys...haha
3. i'll have a beer
4. i might as well try a joint
5. cocaine is awesome. what a fun fun double-fun night!
6. lsd! san francisco! rape! lsd! i'm hungry
7. mom dad take me back!
8. relapse
9.i'm never doing drugs again
10. "the subject of this book died three weeks after her decision not to keep another diary..."
so yeah, fake. people don't turn into junkies an hour after their first beer. american youth, don't fall for this hoo-ha!
***its funny how uptight people have gotten about this review: its the only book that's managed multiple "its for the betterment of our youth comments." a) i didn't miss the anti-drug sentiments. b) is fearmongering the best way we can come up with to keep kids from becoming drug addicts? that makes me sad inside
Rating: really liked it
It's hard for me to write this review because I don't really know where to begin.
Basically whether you believe this is fiction or not that should not matter. If you believe this story is too far fetched to be true, then I must say that you are absolutely wrong, because my (recovering) drug addicted sister is "Alice", I am the innocent "Alex", and our family is the one that will always love her and always take her back. Stories like this absolutely exist in real life. My sister even started using at the same age as "Alice" so stuff like this
does happen, even to good people.
This book should not be looked at as "anti-drug propaganda" but rather as a story of a
true drug addict. This book illustrates addiction perfectly, for the addict and for his or her family.
A lot of the content is hard to stomach with the graphic imagery and language, but if you know an addict, or have one in your family, it is definitely what you can expect from people who revolve their life around drugs.
The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is because I like lighter books so much better than the dark ones. Nonetheless this book is very good
if you choose to not be so shut off from the reality of this story.
Rating: really liked it
This book is crap on its own. But those of you old enough to remember the latter portion of the 70s might remember that Beatrice Sparks, the "editor" of Go Ask Alice, also "edited" a bunch of other alarmist books aimed at teens, all supposedly taken from teenagers' diaries. One was called "Jay's Journal," and was purportedly about a teen who gets involved with Satanism and eventually commits suicide to escape the horror of it all.
Even as a 12-year-old, however, it was obvious to me that every single one of these books was written by the same person (Ms. Sparks, presumably). It's not as though you had to perform a sophisticated rhetorical analysis to see that the authors were the same; there were all these stupid little tics in the writing common to all the books. The one I happen to remember is that the author would repeat things three times and then put an exclamation point after them, as in, "This evening was great great great!" I suppose it was her attempt to imitate unbridled teenage exuberance, or something. Anyway, apart from the fact that this book is a fraud, it's also stupid. Don't bother.
(I will say that after reading the scene where our heroine drinks a Coke that someone has laced with LSD, whereupon she immediately starts on the road to JUNKIEDOM and DEATH, I was terrified to drink anything at a party.)
Rating: really liked it
I was never forced to read this when I was younger, so I thought that I'd pick it up and read it now, for a laugh, being as there are days when there is just too much blood in my drug-stream.
7pm 12 Nov 2007
Well, I'm about 12 page into this book and I already hate Alice. Quite a lot, actually. I hope that as I read further, Alice's drug-induced diary entries mark an improvement upon her character.
1pm 16 Nov 2007
Finished the book 3 days ago, and just finally stopped laughing so that I can be able to write this review.
If this book was meant to make me want to do some drugs, then bully for Ms. Anonymous because it worked! I didn't do [extra] drugs, but it made me want to.
Some of my favourite excerpts:
"In San Francisco we won't know single soul that uses it and it will be easy to stay off."
Uh, yeah, because no one in SF does drugs, right?
"...I don't want to die. I'm afraid. Isn't that ghastly and ironic? I'm afraid to live and afraid to die, just like the old Negro spiritual. I wonder what their hang-up was?"
Yes, Ms. Anonymous, me too. I mean, what's with those Negroes anyway? Always singing mournful spirituals... It's like they've had a hard life or something, psh....
I'd like to say this book was horrible, but it did indeed make me laugh audibly quite a few times, so for that, it should be read (preferably while one is on some mind-altering substances).
Rating: really liked it
This infuriating book is the most repugnant piece of reactionary propaganda that I've ever had the misfortune to read. Go Ask Alice is unnecessary proof that sex and drug stories are the best money makers; it helps when they also support a staunchly conservative, traditionalist agenda. The whole book is a fetid lie, and a poorly executed one at that.
OK, now that I've calmed down a little bit, let's actually discuss this "real diary." If there ever was a real diary (which seems hardly likely) it was probably very mild compared to this oversexed and overwritten garbage. What seems most likely is that Beatrice Sparks set out to write a book that would prove that smoking a joint or two, having sex without marriage, and (gasp!) not praying all the time would lead to a tragic decline and fall, eventually leading to a premature death. Now, to be fair to Sparks, I'm sure that this literary hoax was on some level a serious effort to help kids avoid the pitfalls of drugs, etc., but the author goes about it a way that is misguided at best and ethically indefensible. If this is on some level a real diary (once again, extremely unlikely) the advertisement and sale of it as a lurid, trashy cautionary tale is a disturbing thought. But, the fact that it is a lie disguised as the truth is simply disgusting. It is a blatant slap in the face to all families who have suffered real drug related losses. It's the commercialization of tragedy.
Next, there is the writing style and storyline (remember, this is fiction) to consider. The book does tug at the heartstrings, but only in a way most abusive to the reader. If there is one thing that always upsets me in fiction, it is any tragedy involving the elderly; this has always bothered me. Naturally, Sparks kills off both of the narrator's grandparents in the most tragic ways the story allows. She exploits the reader's archetypal love of grandparents for cheap heartache (is it any wonder that this was made into a TV movie of the week?). If there was any clue to this book's lack of authenticity, it's the glaringly obvious fact that the grandparents will die before book's end, something a child could see coming. The reader is supposed to accept that a girl who can't figure out how a doctor can tell if a girl is a virgin, would, a relatively short time later, be using language out of a Henry Miller novel. The attempts to sound like an innocent girl and a jaded junkie are hackneyed and incompetent. The progression is totally unrealistic, but is still clearly the progression of a novel, not a real diary. I have to hand it to Sparks, she really throws in everything, including some outrageous, barely concealed homophobia: of course the drug dealers are gay, and drugs make the narrator want to be a lesbian and similar such things. And unsurprisingly, it must be pointed out at the end that the publication of this "real diary" is a commemoration of the "thousands of drug deaths that year." I think that if parents chose to sit down with their kids and talked about drugs without stigmatization instead of letting them read this crap, it would be a small, but much more intelligent (and certainly more tasteful) tribute to the dead and a step towards a more educated future.
Go Ask Alice was an important book for me; I can honestly say I've never run to the computer so fast to type out a review, good or bad, before. I do understand, truly, why books like Alice exist. Parents fear for the welfare of their children and want to have preventative measures, while kids love stories packed with drugs and sex. I just wish there was a way to educate young and old without having to read a ridiculous, exploitative forgery like Go Ask Alice.
Rating: really liked it
This was written by Nancy Reagan* as propaganda for her "Just Say NO" anti-drugs campaign. It contains every single cliche about how making friends with anyone whose social life doesn't involve Christian youth clubs will inevitably lead to the sort of parties where teenagers can drink beer and have a puff of a joint and it is downhill all the way from there.
Drugs lead to getting in with a bad crowd, having sex, stealing, dealing, prostitution, homelessness and insanity! Only the pastor can save her. But no, once she is persuaded to go home, those good old non-drug taking, Christian hometown folks are visiting the sins of the daughter on the parents with social isolation and threats, so eventually they move to a new town. A new beginning, nah... we all know you can't escape drugs when you start on the slippery slope of that first puff and it will end badly.
An overdose, death. Inevitably... predictably.
You'd think that the book would be much praised by the sort of ultra-conservative parents who actually believe in this kind of crap, but no, every year it makes the list of the most-challenged books. So Nancy Reagan* didn't succeed with this particular element of her campaign.
*I lied, it wasn't written by Nancy Reagan. It was written by the author Beatrice Sparks who lived in Utah (clue?) and worked in the State Mental hospital. She also wrote another "true" diary, Jay's Journal about how getting involved in the occult led to suicide, another one on a kid's life on the streets, one about a single, pregnant, teenage girl, all supposedly based on real diaries. There might even have been more.
I was going to shelve this book on my Crap Authors or Unreadable Books shelves, but actually in a kind of train-wreck way it was rather enjoyable. It's also worth seeing the film if you can, it's so B movie that it's great fun. I was stoned when I watched it, I think that added considerably to my enjoyment.
Rating: really liked it
I first read this book in sixth grade. When I tell people this, they usually look at me in an appalled fashion, and ask if my parents knew I was reading it. And I tell them, yes, my mother knew, before I was even finished with the first entry. I had/ have a tendency to talk openly with my mother, especially upon the topic of books. When she saw that I was reading it, she looked at me a moment, then said something along the lines of: "Rachel, if you weren't such a mature reader/person, I would tell you not to read that book." And so, I read it, and felt deeply moved.
But what does this have to do with GO ASK ALICE? Everything. Though I suggest that Everyone read this book, I do agree with my mother, that for certain reasons, the reader must be mature enough to digest this true story of a girl, and not mock it or pull its lines to pieces with sayings such as: "like this would happen" or "whatever". They must look within the depths of this girl's words, and try to understand what she was feeling as she wrote them. Through drugs, befriending a BP, rape, and horrible circumstances that make you see things differently, this girl pours out her soul to her diary, and eventually, to the world.
In conclusion, I feel that I should make it known that it is not most important to reflect soaly (sp?) upon the book in any review, but the impact that it has upon the individual. A year after having first read GO ASK ALICE, I was stunned to find that somebody, perhaps the school library, had white-outed many of the words, either curse words, or one's not 'deemed fit' for the student to read. And I couldn't help but wonder, if they are going to alter the story in such a fashion, why not just pull the books off the shelf intirely, because with things 'censored' out, what use is the book then, without its full impact and meaning?
Rating: really liked it
3.5 Stars
First published in 1971, Go Ask Alice is a controversial book involving teenage addiction. It's written in first person in traditional diary form. We don't know the troubled teenage girls name but we follow her rapid descent into her life as an addict.
"Anonymous" is a lonely teenager who feels like she will never live up to the expectations of her parents. She struggles with self-esteen issues, loneliness, etc. On top of that her family has now moved and she's having trouble making new friends. But things go from bad to worse beginning the night she's at a party and someone spikes her drink with LSD.
She likes the feeling the drugs give her and feels like they take the "edge" off. She doesn't feel so insecure and lonely when she's high. It's not long before she's experimenting with more and more drugs and it starts affecting all areas of her life. Her life quickly spins out of control.
I've read quite a few really good books about addiction and this is one book that I will never forget. I'm not sure if it was my age at the time or some of the things happening around me or both but it really had an impact on me.
As it was written in the 70's there will of course be some dated refrences (I didn't know until recently that the title of the book was taken from the Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit"). It was also made into a movie in 1973.
When I read it years ago, I thought it was a true story. However there has been a lot of debate over how much of it (if any) is actually true. It's been under criticism for many reasons. Some say it was written by a psychologist about one of her patients, but greatly exaggerated. Even if it's entirely fictional I still took something away from it. We are all entitled to our opinions and I understand some may not like it. In my opinion if someone learns something from it then I'm happy they read it.
Yes, times have changed and drugs themselves have changed. But the one thing that hasn't changed is that addiction can still ruin lives the way it always has.
Rating: really liked it
- Alice?
- Mm-hm?
- They told me to go ask you.
- Ask me what?
- Ah... I guess, should I do drugs?
- Well, how would I know? I'm just a made-up girl in a piece of anti-drugs propaganda that somehow became more famous than it deserved.
- Hey, don't be like that. I meant, if you actually had existed, then what would you have said?
The rest of this review is available elsewhere (the location cannot be given for Goodreads policy reasons)
Rating: really liked it
Bwaaah. So disappointing. Some of my co-workers were discussing this book at lunch one day, and I remembered being super curious about it when I was younger, but for some reason never got around to it. Unfortunately for my enjoyment of the book, I did some digging before reading it. I see on Goodreads that the author is not credited as "Anonymous" (as it still is on the cover of the book), but Beatrice Sparks. On the book, Sparks is listed as the editor, but a preface still states it is the real diary of a real teenager. Now there are three possibilities here, 1. Sparks has the most depressing job ever, surrounding by teens facing fatal distasters, but always keeping a diary about it, 2. Sparks stalks especially literate high-risk children across the country, 3. Sparks totally made it all up. Go Ask Alice is one of about seven diaries of anonymous teenagers edited by Sparks (with Jay's Journal even having the same cover, but with a boy instead), who also is apparently a Mormon youth counselor. SO, unsurprisingly, there's a bit of an agenda going on, with the plot lines seeming a little to hyperbolic and a pretty obvious anti-hippie/free love vibe throughout the book (and a bizarre and troubling underlying theme of drug use causing homosexual desires and behavior, which is later regretted and seen as intensely shameful and dirty).
So, if the events of the book are not true, it robs it of the punch at the end of the book. But maybe if it's written really well, it would be redeeming. Sadly, no. This is a book written by an adult, I suppose, trying to sound like a teenager. Apparently, teenagers use the phrasing "I do, I really, truly do!," "I want to, I would really, really, want to!," a LOT, as well as an excrutiating number of sacchrine adjectives and adverbs (along the lines of "Daddy is such a lovely, sweet, caring, lovely, lovely Daddy!"). Ugh.
Some reviews I've read also attack the diarist as exceptionally weak, self-pitying, and self-absorbed, with no willingness to change her circumstances. I didn't have a problem with her characterization, however, since a kid would likely have self-esteem issues in order to be tempted into the lifestyle that she had. Also, this is supposed to be a diary, where someone would reveal their thoughts, fears, and flaws, without really trying to defend themselves. I can't imagine a diary that I wrote in middle school would be free of weakness or self-absorption.
I suppose there was an underlying noble cause in wanting to scare kids off drugs motivating the creation of this book, so it has some sort of value. But at least from my experience, kids read this book and were freaked out in around 5th grade, a while before they would even have an interest in drugs (contrary to Go Ask Alice, 10 year olds do not generally sell LSD to elementary school kids in upper-middle-class suburban neighborhoods). Once kids got to the age where they would be tempted to use drugs, the scariness of the book had faded, and it was more of a "hey, remember that crazy book we read when we were little?" The unrealistically exaggerated plot lines also probably distances kids from relating the diarist's lessons to their own lives.
I guess what I'm getting at is the hoax in authorship robs the book of the punch delivered in the epilogue (which is itself given away by reading the summary on the back of the book, amateurs), which would be the only poignant/jarring aspect of the book. The rest is simply drug scare tactics written poorly. If you don't have authenticity to rely on, you need something else to carry your book.
Rating: really liked it
Apparently, when you're a teenager, everyone wants to put LSD in your food nonstop.
Rating: really liked it
My daughter read this book. I was ready to freak out - This book is way too graphic for an 11 year old. I was composing a letter to the middle school librarian who allowed her to check this book out. I was preparing a lecture for Ashley about what is and is not appropriate for a child to read. Then Ashley came to me and started talking about drugs. She started talking about the things that kids say about drugs at school. She told me that she and her best friend had a teary talk about how sad the book was, and how easy it was for the author to fall into the drug lifestyle. They made a vow to always be honest with each other and to always have each others backs. They vowed to speak up if they see the other making bad choices. I'm glad that she read the book. It was such a great starting point for a tough talk.
Rating: really liked it
I couldn't even finish this book. I found it a real boring drag, even though it's only a novella. I tried so hard to get through it, I kept thinking surely it must get better... but it didn't. I couldn't stand the narrator, I felt no connection with her and despised most of her views. My eyes skipped through paragraphs in a desperate bid to get past extremely boring parts... only to find they continued throughout the book.
It wasn't a very good diary, you didn't seem to get a proper look inside the person's head and you couldn't sympathise with them. Every time something went wrong, I wanted to strangle the girl for being so damn pathetic... staying in bed for days because she lost her virginity - seriously, grow up.
I didn't come away feeling that I gained anything or experienced a good story, the supposed message about drugs was mixed. I know the allure of this book comes from the fact that it's a true story and someone's actual diary, well maybe they should have discarded the original and made one up because, true or not, this girl and her endless self-pity just made me sick.
I suppose there's always the possibility that the ending would have stolen my heart for being so incredible, but I honestly don't feel any regret at never finding out.
Rating: really liked it
I read this for the first time in college as part of a reading-intensive young adult lit class, and it was the worst of the many, many books we read. For one girl in the class, it was the only book of the many, many we read that she actually liked, solely because it was the only one she morally approved of (man, how she loathed Weetzie Bat). She went on to become our slacker school's valedictorian. She was a poet and used the word "tapestry" too much in her writing. I think all of this is quite reason enough to stay away from this book.
Rating: really liked it
On July 10, she was secretly dosed with LSD at a party.
By July 20, she was using intravenous drugs.
By September she had bought a leather fringed vest, and it was all over.
"This was the scene, these were the swingers, and I wanted to be a part of it!"So it goes in this 1971 classic of hysterical anti-drug malarkey. Within a few months our unnamed heroine has been gang raped on heroin; shortly after that, she's become a "Priestess of Satan" and drugs have literally "took her the homo route." That's a quote. Drugs make you gay, kids.
Go Ask Alice - marketed as a real teen's diary - was actually written by Beatrice Sparks, a Mormon youth therapist who lied about her PhD and wholly invented this story, as well as many other insane fake teen journals about things like Satanism and AIDS. It contains every ludicrous canard trotted out by the direly lame anti-drug crusaders throughout the 70s and 80s, and was required reading for two generations of kids who learned that school was not going to be the right place to learn anything useful about drugs. Secretly LSD-laced candy that makes you freak out, planted by "the grass gang" as revenge for you going square? Why yes, that's here. Teens pushing drugs to nine-year-olds on playgrounds? "Another day, another blowjob"? Acid trips that lead directly to mental institutions? Yep, yep and yep. And did I mention that drugs make you gay?
As a book, it's...hard to judge, really, because it's so distractingly inauthentic. It's sortof entertaining, in an "Oh no she didn't!" way, and it doesn't outstay its welcome. It's terribly written, but literary quality doesn't even seem relevant here. As a time capsule of the supersquare anti-drug efforts of the 70s and 80s and why they were such an abject failure, it's perfect.
I just wish it had been more specific about where she got that leather fringed vest. It sounds sweet.
