Thursday, December 10

Book Review: Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (aka Beatrice Sparks)



Author: Anonymous (aka Beatrice Sparks)
Title: Go Ask Alice
Genre: Classic, YA, Realistic Fiction, & Drama
Pages: 213
First Published: 1971
Where I Got It: Borrowed from friend

A teen plunges into a downward spiral of addiction in this classic cautionary tale.

January 24th


After you've had it, there isn't even life without drugs.... 


It started when she was served a soft drink laced with LSD in a dangerous party game. Within months, she was hooked, trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city. It was a journey that would rob her of her innocence, her youth -- and ultimately her life.


Read her diary.


Enter her world.


You will never forget her. 


A couple of my friends recommended that I read this. They said it would be a quick read and it was good. They were right. 

It certainly was a quick read due to the diary format. Also, it was written for young adults, so it needs to be quick. Also, the story was good. According to rumor, this is based on a true-ish story much like 'A Million Little Pieces' that I had read and reviewed a while back. The author takes a true story and embellishes and changes it a bit to make it more interesting for the public (much like every movie ever filmed). This genre is called Realistic Fiction. I guess people do not know of this genre, because many people have doubts that this isn't a real story....duh its not 100% true....just BASED on a story of a teenage druggie. 

Anyways...

This had been written during the time of the government cracking down on the huge influx of drugs going around not only the US, but around the world. Yes, this is set during the 70s (damn hippies ;D lol jk jk). Are drugs bad? Duh...especially LSD and those harder drugs...but too each their own I guess. After reading this I am glad that I did not do hard drugs in High School like Alice did. I felt bad that it due to her drink being spike with LSD. I would have pissed and went to the cops, but poor girl didn't because they were her new friends and she didn't want to be alone. 

Subplot/warning....don't trust anyone. 

Subplot/warning #2....if you don't have friends in High School, don't try and impress people and let them spike your drinks. 

Subplot.warning #3....spiking people's drinks is bad and super rude.

So many plots and lessons to learned in this novel that I can't possibly list them all! hahaha. But yes, poor Alice. Also...I felt really bad for her parents especially with the ending/epilogue. What utter crap! Gah that annoyed me. It was good and I expected it to happen, but I was rooting for a HEA ending. But yea know....you can't win them all.


In the end, this was a good book. Very anti-drugs message going on and it is a realistic fiction novel (based a true story, but heavily beefed up on drama and facts changed a hair). Alice was a dumb-dumb, but I felt bad for her and her parents. I highly recommend this because it is good, but it's also a quick read. Out of five stars, I stamp this with 4 stars. 








4 comments:

Anachronist said...

Eh, addictions and teens - nothing good comes out of it...

Carole Rae said...

Dumb teens and a substance that makes you dumb...not a good combo. lol

Blodeuedd said...

Ehhhhh, dunno

Melliane said...

Oh quick read. It sounds interesting and not something I usually read