*Summary:
Go Ask Alice depicts the fall of a 15 year-old girl into drug addiction. The book is written in diary form, and very intimately describes her every action and emotion. The main character is just like any other 15 year old when her family moves into a new house. She finds it harder than she had imagined to make new friends and become depressed. When she visits her old neighborhood she is surprised when the popular kids invite her to a party. At that party she is accidentally introduced to LSD. From then, she falls in love with drugs. Her life goes from normal to a life of drugs, unprotected sex, selling drugs, and running away from home. The reader watches as she tries to overcome her addiction repeatedly, only to fail over and over again.
*Bibliography:
Go ask Alice. (1971). New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
*My Rating:
This book was so powerful. I think the fact that this book was based on the diary of a real 15 year old girl made it all the more powerful. It was very enlightening to see how fast the fall into addiction can happen. The diary format was very effective for the author's purpose. I felt like I got to know the main character very well, and I was always rooting for her, hoping that she would be able to overcome the addiction. This book was also very well written. I loved how the writing style gradually changed to reflect the changes in the main character; it felt very authentic.
*Review:
Children's Literature
Alice is your typical teenaged 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 calmer 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: "Closed my eyes and the music began to absorb me physically. I could smell it and touch it and feel it as well as hear it." She wants more and quickly becomes a part of the drug scene. For about a year and a half Alice goes on and off drugs and runs away from home twice. Each time she manages to find her way back to her parents. They take her in, get her help, and all seems to be rosy until Alice is once again given acid without her knowledge. This time, she has a bad trip, ends up in the hospital, and then a mental hospital. Her parents stick by her, but her life of drug abuse ultimately ends with a fatal overdose—whether it is intentional or accidental is not known. Go Ask Alice has become a classic story of warning against the use of drugs. For the teen scene of 2006, this story will appear as slightly dated. The issues of relationships both in and out of school have not changed much in the last thirty years, but there are subtle differences in the culture that may prove distracting for a young person reading this book today. The basic story remains a chilling cautionary tale. 2005 (orig. 1971), Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster, , and Ages 14 to 18.—Wendy M. Smith-D'Arezzo
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/go-ask-alice-anonymous/1100300729?ean=9780671664589
*Uses in a library:
As a librarian I probably would not read excerpts from this book out loud, but I could definitely see including this book on a list of recommended titles for high school age students during a drug awareness week of programming.
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