Go Ask Alice: A Real Diary

by Anonymous

• ISBN10: 1416914633
• ISBN13: 9781416914631
• Publish Date: 1 December 2005
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 224
• Language: English

Reviews

[Kevin Costain]

I had heard of it - perhaps in a school setting - but didn’t read the book back then. Fast forward to 2020 and my teenage niece reveals she’s reading Alice. She tell me it’s worth checking out. Well twist my rubber arm - I’m in.

The subject matter isn’t exactly a rosy one. Teenagers and drugs. I wasn’t sure how I was going to react to it, but I started reading anyway.

“Goodbye dear home, goodbye good family. I really am leaving mostly because I love you so much and I don’t want you to ever know what a weak and disreputable person I have been. And I hate being a high school dropout, but I dare not even write for my transcripts, knowing you and Richie might follow them. I’m leaving you a note beloved family, but it can never tell you how sacred you are to me.”

The mountain of controversy around whether a teenager wrote this or not (apparently not) adds something to the backstory of his interesting book.

The challenge is, with the benefit of hindsight, can this book possibly be seen as a sincere attempt at a teenager’s inner narrative - or a propaganda piece for the newly minted late-seventies war on drugs. Hard to tell. At times it felt as if Alice was a fake person, and other times it felt like Alice was very real, clutching her diary as if it kept her sanity in check.

A recommend read if only for the fact that this is a book “of its time.”

[leahrosereads]

This absolutely reeked of Reefer Madness propaganda. I do not believe that this is someone's actual diary word for word. I just don't buy it. The writing is abysmal in a way that an adult sometimes views kids as being dumb, ya know? It reads like someone wanted to scare kids about the dangers of drugs and what will happen if they smoke pot.

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

Alice is your typical teen aged girl. She worries that she is too fat. She wants a boyfriend: "I wish I were popular and beautiful and wealthy and talented." She frequently makes resolutions in her diary to do better in school, work toward a better relationship with her mother, and lose weight. Her life changes when she goes to a party and is given acid in her drink. She loves the feeling the drug gives her: "I could smell it and touch it and feel it as well as hear it. Never had anything ever been so beautiful."

I first read this at thirteen, just a few years younger than Alice. I was appalled and absorbed by this novel at the same time. Now fifteen years later, I am just as appalled and absorbed but now see the dept and sorrow of this short life. Between the bleakness, I could see sparks of light trying to break through, but never quite reached the surface.

Alice writes several times about streaking her diary with tears and I almost did the same while reading this short book. A vivid description of life on the streets and the constant dislike of what she had become was heart breaking. Who knew a 200 page book could be so emotionally draining?

Like Anne Frank's diary is to the Holocaust, Go Ask Alice is a testament to the powers of addiction and should be a book everyone reads at least once.

EDIT:
After writing this review and reading several thought provoking comments, did some research on the authenticity of Go Ask Alice and the general conscience is that it is a work of fiction. Looking back, I realize how obvious it is, like James Frey's "Million Little Pieces". Remember the Oprah scandal? While reading both A Million Little Pieces and Go Ask Alice I thought they were too unbelievable to be real. As the saying goes, if it's too good to be true than it probably is (only substitute good for bad).

In hindsight, how could Alice remember in clarity her thoughts and actions during an LSD trip? In general, the cohesiveness of the plot under the current circumstances seemed too tidy. Lastly, like in "A Million Little Pieces" his love interest Lily conveniently hangs herself the day James is released and in Go Ask Alice, the subject dies three weeks after deciding to stop keeping a diary. If there is any truth to this novel, was it just fate that Alice stopped her diary or did Beatrice Sparks decide that was a good stopping point?

I still stand by what I said, fiction or no this still leaves the reader with a haunting message on drugs -- Just say no.

[angelarenea9]

I didn't really like this book. I felt that it was not very believable. It seemed like a girl who has never touched drugs was imagining what it would sound like if she had been on drugs. She was very whiny and obnoxious. It was an easy read, but frustrating. I guess it's just not my usual type of book, but there's a reason for that. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.