Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

Anonymous (1971). Go Ask Alice. New York: Simon Pulse.

Go Ask Alice is based on the journal of a fifteen year old girl who gets pulled into the world of drugs and can't seem to ever pull herself out as hard as she tries.

Go ask Alice is based on the journal of a 15-year-old girl who is uprooted from her hometown when her father gets a new job at a university. The book starts out with Alice trying to adapt to her new surroundings and missing her old life. When she returns to stay with grandparents in her old hometown for the summer, she gets invited to a party by the popular group. Unbeknownst to Alice, she is given a drink with drugs in it, and her downward spiral into a new world of drugs begins. Alice returns home to her parents at the end of the summer only to get caught up with a group there who use and deal drugs. After running away from home with her friend Chris, Alice becomes miserable and eventually returns home. She makes the statement “I will never, ever, ever, under any circumstances use drugs again. They are the root and cause of this whole rotten, stinking mess I am in...” (Nov 5, pg. 69).

Alice makes similar statements throughout the book until she is put admitted to the State Mental Hospital and appears to make a complete recovery. However, the epilogue states that “The subject of this books died three weeks after” her last journal entry. It is unknown how or why she died. This book is interesting not only because of Alice’s struggles, but because of the attempts she makes to change her life and her desire to help others. This book can be used as a resource to help show young adults the misery of getting mixed up with the wrong crowd, and could be used as a teaching tool as a way for young adults to figure things out on their own time and in their own way.