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Title: Go Ask Alice (Avon/Flare Book) by James Jennings, Beatrice Sparks ISBN: 0-380-00523-9 Publisher: Avon Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.50 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (900 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A MUST read
Comment: Enter the world of a drug addict, cold, horrifying, and lurid. Enter the world of a seemingly average 15 year-old girl who stumbles upon drugs unknowingly one day at a friend's party and staggers into a world far more bloodcurdling than she ever expected. Enter the world of one frightened little girl playing a game far too complex for her feeble little mind. The anonymity of the book suggests that this girl could be anywhere, Japan, Mars, England, Tucson, and even in your neighborhood. Enter the world of Go Ask Alice.
Starting off slowly, and also rather boringly, the book begins with a younger, and nonetheless more naive Alice, an average teenager, writing about the ups and downs of everyday life, boys, and dieting, and mainly, her move out of her comfortable life in her home town to somewhere new. But this information, however superfluous it seems, is imperative to understanding the drastic changes that Alice undergoes later in the book- the change from the giddy little girl to the drained, weary young woman she becomes.
After somewhat of a struggle to meet new people and find friends in her new town, Alice spends a few weeks with her grandmother back in her old town. There she meets "Jill", and the two become fast friends, which is odd because they were never friends earlier. Alice is enthralled with Jill and her friends; she can't get enough of them. She eagerly accepts an invite to one of Jill's parties one fateful Friday night, and it is there, with a can of Coke and a little bit of a hallucinogenic called LSD, there where Alice's plunge begins.
From here, the novel is face-paced and vivacious, corresponding well with Alice's life at the moment. Upon Alice's return home, she experiments with more drugs, denying any trace of an addiction and delves herself into even more trouble, running away from home in the middle of the night, engaging in "swinger" parties, dropping out of school, and more.
At this point, the novel is very exciting, albeit somewhat hard to follow at times. But any experienced reader will have no trouble with this-Readers are fascinated with the novel just as much as Alice is fascinated with this new world she is exploring.
The end of the book is terrifying but poignant and heartbreaking, and will most certainly bring tears to the reader's eyes. As a young teenager myself, I can say with all of my heart that I will never become a drug user, especially after reading this compelling novel. It is unequivocally saddening to see how many teens fall under traps nearly identical to the one Alice falls under in the book. The book itself is not at a difficult level, and personally, I feel that it is a must that everyone, ages 12 and older, should read it.
Rating: 3
Summary: It's a good read but not a good book
Comment: I have read this book a few times - it's a very quick read and certainly compelling - and think it's pretty interesting. It's convincing enough that if you hadn't any contact with the world it purports to describe - like most of the pious teens and school counsellors who've written on Amazon that they 'will now never try drugs' - then you might well believe it (like these people do). What I don't like about it is the way it reinforces the myth that drug use will necessarily lead to perdition. I have personally seen many people use LSD and there is no chance that it would have some of the effects described in the book. Furthermore, the pot effects Alice claims to feel are ridiculously overblown and make the drug out to be a loss of control type thing. In reality it's alcohol and alcohol alone that encourages teenagers to have risky unprotected sex. I'm not saying that teenagers should use drugs, but to use propaganda to ensure that they don't is worse than allowing them to make their own informed decisions...
Rating: 1
Summary: Not a real diary
Comment: I can't fathom why there are still people who believe this is a real diary. One would think, even if the writing style and completely unrealistic descriptions of drugs weren't proof enough, the fact that the author was exposed several years ago would.
Beatrice Sparks authored several "troubled-teen-loses-life-but-leaves-diary" books in the 70s, each one more ridiculously stereotypical and inaccurate than the last.
There are tons of true drug addiction/recovery stories out there, and even more nonfiction books devoted to the subject.
Let's please let "Alice" rest in peace, and leave this book where it belongs - in the library of some sheltered, fundamentalist school in the 1970s.
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Title: It Happened to Nancy by Beatrice Sparks ISBN: 0380773155 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 March, 1994 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Cut by Patricia McCormick ISBN: 0439324599 Publisher: Scholastic Pub. Date: February, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Annie's Baby: The Diary of Anonymous, a Pregnant Teenager by Anonymous, Beatrice Sparks ISBN: 0380791412 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 July, 1998 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson ISBN: 014131088X Publisher: Speak Pub. Date: 01 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $8.99 |
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Title: Almost Lost : The True Story of an Anonymous Teenager's Life on the Streets by Beatrice Sparks ISBN: 038078341X Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 01 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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