Book Review: Go Ask Alice

"Go Ask Alice" has been used for years as a teaching tool for middle and high school students.  It is a supposedly real account written by "Anonymous" (to maintain authenticity) that is gritty enough to caution young people against using drugs.  Enough people told me how moved they were by the story that I decided to read it even though I am 28 and have very successfully avoided all drug temptation.

I know it is supposed to be an incredibly realistic portrayal of the descent into addiction, but reading it as an adult, I found it inferior to other memoirs.  The story is told as a series of journal entries over several years [in the 1970s] and shows how easy it can be for a goody-goody teenage girl to fall into serious drugs.  It lost plausibility for me when the narrator is so deep into drug use that she is homeless.  She can't find a place to sleep but she can keep track of a diary?  Seems fishy to me.  If, however, I was reading this as a young girl, I could see how it would scare me straight.  Maybe not great for a 28 year old, but definitely something I would want my kids to read as pre-teens.

3 out of 5 stars.