Go Ask Alice is marketed as a nonfiction diary written by a teenage girl who becomes addicted to drugs. The book was "edited" by Beatrice Sparks though, and in recent years it has been largely recognized that she authored this book based on accounts from a patient she had. So this book is mostly a propaganda piece to scare kids into not doing drugs. That being said, the book definitely leaves the reader with some terrifying images of drug use and as a 14-year-old this book certainly scared me. As a 20 year old I was less frightened, but since I have seen people fall to drugs like this I was not entirely jaded.
Now, I did read the book pretty differently this time around. It seemed like the only reason the girl in the book (her name is actually not Alice, we never find out her name) falls to drugs is because she is insecure; "Even now I'm not really sure which parts of myself are real and which parts are things I've gotten from books" (5). This is a lovely sentiment, but the book really seems to drive home this idea that the girl has no idea who she is. You've met these people, the people who change their favorite kinds of eggs based on what guy they are dating that week (yeah, I just referenced Runaway Bride). I can certainly think of a few off the top of my head. While I think that being dependent on others for you worldview isn't necessarily a good quality, I do think it's a quality that most teenagers have. To use such a universal trait in order to terrify kids out of using drugs seems like a bit of a cheap shot to me.
At the same time, there is some truth to this book. I won't pretend to know about how realistic her drug use is because I honestly have no idea, but her account of adolescence is pretty dead on; "Adolescents have a very rocky, insecure time. Grown-ups treat them like children and yet expect them to act like adults" (76). Yeah man, been there. This is one aspect of the book that I think really works. There is no pushing kids to adults. At fifteen and sixteen you've pretty much figured out that adults don't actually know everything. You're not old enough to realize that they know a lot either. So the message to ask for help isn't necessarily a message saying, "You're a stupid kid and you won't go anywhere in the world without mom and dad," which I think most kids probably relate to.
This book earned a C. I read this for the Shelf Discovery Challenge.
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