Go Ask Alice

Rating:
Summary: The Pot Smoker's Funnies
Review: I decided to write a review on this book, although I've read it a long time ago, a young woman in my family is currently reading this book and I was telling her how when I was younger, this was a sacred book to have, to read in secret, it was a big deal. Her feelings of this book were of an adult writing like a child, and the big argument amoung her and her friends is the question of how could someone so bent on drugs could remember or care to keep a journal. They're just not buying it. I was floored, I bought every word when I was thirteen years old (not that this fact mattered much), but I still felt terrible for this young woman who died from pot and acid. I had to read it again and I must say when you read something as an adult that you've read as a child, it's strange at how differently you take it. This is so obviously a book written by an adult it's borederline commical, like that movie made in the sixties where everyone's going nutty after smoking pot, murdering and just losing their minds, so embarrassing it was funny. Reefer Madness!

It's appauling that this sort of scare tactic is not only available to children, but reccomended! Contrary to popular belief, children are getting smarter, they can see through this, and it's become a joke to them.
I do think that drug use amoung teens is a tragedy, the way some school systems are today kids are falling out of school at an alarming rate. I love teenagers, I think they're smart and creative it breaks my heart to see them lose their options because of drugs. I understand to simply tell children why they shouldn't do this or that is useless, we really don't want them to learn everything through experience. How do we come up with a more realistic approach (and not Katie Couric pretending to be "hip". I am more embarrassed by adults as an adult than when I was a kid)without sounding like a hypocrite? Don't get me wrong, the view from a journal is sort of creative, but it's time to place this book on the shelf to rest and get a little real.

Rating:
Summary: Whoa
Review:
This is a very interesting book (and apparently a real diary) about a 15 year old drug addict.

Alice is an insecure 15 year old and when she goes to her grandparent's house for the summer, she goes to a party with many drug addicts. She takes drugs at the party and continues to do so until she decides to go back home. Not long after, Alice once again falls in with the wrong crowd again and does drugs. In a very short time span, Alice runs away twice and stays away from her home, usually with a then-friend. She is constantly saying that she wants to change and she never wants to touch drugs again. Her family is still surprising loving and she meets a boy who loves her, too.

I almost cried at the end of the book. This is very sad and a very powerful book. I think every teenager should read this book.

~Atalanta

Rating:
Summary: I'm passing this down to my child
Review: I first read this at 13 and just again after I purchased for my twelve year old to read. I think that all preteen/teen's should have the chance to read this.
This book helped me with choices that most kid's can't take up with mom and dad. Drugs are bad and that is all that was really said for many years, but this books show's you the effects and dangers that go along with them. As the story of a teenager that is turned on without knowing so and finds it hard to walk away from. It has stayed with me all these year's i have passed it on to many and will keep doing so. I would recomend this book to all genreations.

Rating:
Summary: I STAYED STRAIGHT
Review: I read this book back in junior highin the mid 70's.. It was so compelling and real I never went down the path of drugs... I gift this book to teenagers hoping they will really get the message...I DID AND I STAYED STRAIGHT

Rating:
Summary: AMAZING!!!!
Review: This book was amazing to say the least. If I ever had to desire to do drugs, which I actually never have, I would not want to after reading this book. The descriptions were wonderful. I was really drawn toward "Anonymous." It's amazing how one small choice can influence the rest of your life. "Anonyomous" seemed like your average student, just trying to make it in school until she got high for the first time and enjoyed it. As I was reading this book, I was thinking about how it could have been me or one of my friends just as easily. I made me question my own life, and how I would handle things if I was in the same situation. I think it is so sad that she doesn't feel like she can really tell anyone when she is trying to be clean. When her mother tells her she should be nice to all these "nice" girls who in reality are the people "Anonymous" is trying to stay away from because they are the druggies, my heart really goes out to the girl. Even thirty years after this book was published, it had a great impact on me as I read it.

Rating:
Summary: Not real but gripping anyway
Review: No, I can't believe that a young woman had enough discipline, and such a command of language, that she kept this so-called diary. Yes, the sub-title is "a real diary." Do publishers lie? You bet they do, if they can get away with it. And who is going to call them on it, when the author is as prolific as "Anonymous."

But, the little book is gripping anyway, as good as a novel. This poor young lady just seems so naive, like, duh. I grew up in the 60s and 70s, too, but I don't remember people putting acid on chocolate covered peanuts too much, or anything for that matter. That seems fabricated, but it is interesting. This young Anonymous goes through a journey and a half, and do you believe she died? Well, since she never lived, I don't think she died. The ghostwriter of this diary will die one day, hopefully of natural causes, but the publisher isn't saying anything about that.

This is a good book to learn some things, and I see 1,000 reviewers have read it so far, quite high as far as this site goes per book. Yes, it could have happened the way it's painted here, but not written down in a diary. Today, maybe, an online diary might be possible, but even that takes a lot of discipline. Drug users very rarely, if ever, have the discipline to keep diaries, especially carry them around with them when they leave home and all that.

Diximus.

Rating:
Summary: Go Ask Alice
Review: Go Ask Alice is an amazing book about a teenage girl whose life is taken over by drugs. This horrifyingly realistic story shows that an innocent teenager's life can drastically change with one accidental dose of drugs. After discovering the wonderful feeling that drugs gave her, the feeling of no worries, being able to let go; Alice was hooked before she even realized it. Little did Alice know that drugs are much harder to give up than they are to get addicted to. Her diary takes the reader step by step through Alice's desperate attempt to rid her life of drugs, and everyone, and everything that had to do with them. As hard as she tries, the tempting drugs are everywhere and she can't give them up.
This diary has incredible details and tells so much about how Alice felt. I couldn't put this book down. Every day of Alice's life was so different from the previous one. One day she would be happily living with her family and the next she would be destitute, living on the streets, miles from her home. After reading this book I felt like I really knew Alice. This book was so depressing that I couldn't believe that it was true and an actual person had to live through all of these horrible events. This book has a theme of alienation. Alice goes through many different friendships; all of whom she thinks will be her best friend and will understand her. All of these attempts to find a best friend fail. She also can't communicate with her parents or any other member of her family. Alice feels like she can't connect or talk to anybody about her problems. The only "person" she can spill out all her thoughts and feelings to is her diary. This is an ongoing theme that lasts throughout the whole diary and adds to the gloomy, depressing mood of this book. It seems like if she just had somebody to talk to about her problems, it would be easier for her to give up drugs. This book is not at all predictable and keeps you reading to the distressing conclusion.


Rating:
Summary: This book will not help anyone
Review: Don't give this book to someone thinking it will stop them from trying drugs. It won't, and even worse, it isn't real. It is not a real diary, it was created to scare people off drugs. Only those with complete ignorance of drugs, who've never known anyone who did them, could even begin to believe it was real (particulairly the ridiculous ending.)

Rating:
Summary: Go Ask Alice
Review: Were you that perfect kid, then suddenly you hit rock bottom when you met those bad kids that your mom always told you to stay away from? "Anonymous" was a nice, quite girl, until she moved. During the summer she went to stay with her grandparents and that's where she was introduced to LSD at a very wild party. This book was written anonymously but all was true about a girl when she became addicted to drugs, sex, and alcohol. " Anonymous" goes through hard times and the drugs would take the edge off of her loneliness and self-hate. It also took her life to exalting highs and upsetting lows " Anonymous'" parents put a lot of pressure on her, which she took very personally. This added to the other things that teenagers go through which caused her to go into a deep state of depression. I definitely think you should read this book because it explains what many young adults go through in their adolescence years. Also if you enjoyed the movie Thirteen this book is very similar, with same kind of plot. This book was very sad and emotional. It shows the down world of drugs in a very realistic way.

" Anonymous" went through a dramatic change in both her attitude and appearance after she got home from a summer at her grandparents. When she got home it was time to go to school. There she meets a lot of people that are dealing drugs and she starts to be one of the big dealers. She has many customers counting on her to get LSD, ACID and all the other drugs. She started hanging out with bad people, going to parties, and getting high.

Go Ask Alice is very similar to the movie Thirteen especially in the plot. In both they are about a girl that is very shy and wants to be just like those popular girls. When they do become one of those popular girls they find out its not as easy as it looks. They start experimenting with sex, drugs, and alcohol many of the dangerous things that high school kids our age try. Go Ask Alice and Thirteen are a book and movie explaining the obstacles some teenager's experience. Not all of us may take that track but many of us have or will. This book shows good examples of peer pressure. Things we might not want to do but get pressured into doing because if we don't we will not be considered cool. A lot of this seems to go on in Go Ask Alice and Thirteen.

This book was very sad and emotional, some parts even made me cry. I hope it will make a difference in your life as it did for me. I knew before but know I know really what drugs, sex, and alcohol can do to your life. This real-life diary of a teenager's struggle with the seductive, often fatal -- world of drugs and addiction tells the truth about drugs. This was a very tough, and uncompromising, honest and disturbing, book but interesting to read because some of this information I had never heard of.

You may think parents don't really know what's best for you but trust me they do. They are always looking out for your best interests, when they say don't hang out with one group or another. There not trying to hurt you but they want to make the right decisions for you so you could stay out of trouble and be safe. With over a million copies in print, Go Ask Alice has become a classic of our time. My least favorite part of the whole book would have to be about the first 20 pages because they were sort of boring and felt like it was dragging out but once she got to her grandparents it started getting interesting. I wish that the ending was different because it was a bit upsetting. This book has its ups and downs. It's like a roller coaster it goes through a loop and it's all over by then. I really think high schoolers would enjoy this book because it really relates to high school more then middle school. Also I think parents and their kids should read this book together because it's a good life lesson and explains what we all are going through and what they went through too.


Rating:
Summary: wonderful
Review: it was a compelling tell. i loved it, and i really felt her pain. i suggest this book to anyone who is thinking about trying drugs.