Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
I have had this book in my library for years. I kept it because I didn’t want to be the type of librarian who banned or hid books from students. I noticed that it hasn’t been checked out in years, and no one is even asking about it. I have never read this book before, so I figured now would be a good time to see what all the fuss is or was about. I know that the book is not a real diary. I also recently saw a book called “Unmask Alice”, which talks about this book and her other book, “Jay’s Journal”. I guess these books caused a lot of trouble at the time. Maybe I will read these as well.
Even just a few pages in, I can say I do not understand the hype of this book. This girl is annoying. She also fell into this horrible world of drugs really quickly. Like, one party, and she was doing whatever anyone handed to her. Really? Are people that easy to manipulate? I don’t even like when people try to share open bags of chips (individually wrapped items are far superior to large bags when sharing in a group), and this girl is taking pills from acquaintances without even considering what might happen. Is this because of the times? Was there not a lot known back then? Was it really that bad?
I get that we are reading her diary, and people tend to be more dramatic when they think no one else will read or hear them. I should give her the benefit of the doubt, but my goodness! She is dramatic! She also runs through friends quickly; every new friend is “the best”, and she relates to them more than anyone else in the world! She is all over the place.
Soon, this girl is running away, doing drugs, getting clean, running back home, and then she is gone again. I guess this would help kids reading this book stay away from drugs. Maybe they will just hate this main character and not want to be anything like her.
As the book goes on, she tries her best to get her life back on track. I can see how difficult it was with her old friends around, trying to get her to go back to her old ways. Those old friends were awful! I have heard of parents moving to new cities or states to give their kids a fresh start, and after reading this book, that makes sense! Why didn’t her parents send her to a new school? I get why they couldn’t move far away because of her dad’s job, but they could have at least moved to a new district.
The ending was unexpected. Spoiler ahead. The last page just says that she died three weeks after choosing not to use dairy. Was the diary the one thing keeping her sober? Did those friends come back for her? I can’t imagine she just slipped back into old habits after all that she went through. It really did annoy me that even though her parents clearly loved her, they kept sending her back to the same school.
Oh well, the book was wild. I didn’t really like it. Granted, I can’t relate. I never tried anything like she did, I don’t even drink! I don’t think I know or knew anyone who did things like her, either. I have heard stories from others and seen the news, so I know these things happen. I’ve never experienced anything like this, so it was hard to connect with her. I’m still glad I read it.
Two out of Five Magical Coffee Cups
Literary Coffee 