Anonymous. Go ask Alice: A real diary. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1971. Print.
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Annotation: A fictional account of a troubled teenage girl written in the 1970's as a testament against drug use.
Review: Although the book, structured like a journal, starts off innocuously enough with the musings of a typical teenage girl - trouble with boys, parents, and body image - the story quickly derails. Upon moving to a new town, the diarist goes to a party and unknowingly ingests LSD. Because she finds so much pleasure in this experience, the diarist plunges into a life of drugs.
The book details the main character running away from home, to facing peer pressure from the dealers at school when she tries to live drug free, and to being put into an insane asylum. By the end of the book however, the diarist attempts to take control of her life. The most poignant part is the last page, where the reader is informed that three weeks after the last entry the protagonist died, perhaps due to an overdose.
Go Ask Alice, though written over thirty years ago, remains popular to this day for its raw and terrifying account of how drugs can ruin a young life.
ISBN-10: 0689817851
ISBN-13: 978-0689817854
Subject Headings: Young adult literature, drug -- abuse fiction, diaries -- fiction
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