Book Review: Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks

“Sometimes I think we’re all trying to be shadows of each other, trying to buy the same records and everything even if we don’t like them. Kids are like robots, off an assembly line, and I don’t want to be a robot!”

Beatrice Sparks, Go Ask Alice

Review:

I’m probably one of the few people who was introduced to this book as an adult rather than in school. I guess that means I missed out on the period where this was believed to be a real teenager’s diary. From what I understand, the author was Beatrice Sparks. I happened by this book/controversy on YouTube and was interested to read it myself.

This book claims to be the diary of a teenage girl who spirals into a drug addiction. The entries see her through the ups and downs, beginning with a move to a new town, the party over summer vacation that introduced her to LSD, and the back and forth between addiction and sobriety.

Had I not known going in that this diary was faked, I would have been skeptical. The lingo was way too stereotypical of the time and scene to be authentic. That, and this girl is supposed to be in her mid-to-late teens, but has the enthusiasm of a nine-year-old girl getting her first diary. Yes! Yes! She really truly does! As if the writing style wasn’t enough of a giveaway, the ending was far too neat and tidy. 

If I had read this when I was younger, yeah, it probably would have frightened or upset me. As an adult, I could see through it. While I can appreciate the intention behind the book (albeit an extreme attempt), it felt like an uneducated attempt at depicting drug culture. I’m not well-versed by any means, but I do have enough insight on addiction to know that this would have been an unlikely scenario the way it was portrayed. Perhaps if the writing hadn’t been so juvenile, I could have bought it a bit more.

All of that said, I admit I was pretty hooked on the story even while I was thinking about how ridiculous it was, which is the only reason I’m giving it 2 stars.

Likes & Dislikes:

What I liked:

• An oddly captivating read.

What I didn’t like:

• Unrealistic narrator.
• I don’t like the guise that this was a real diary just for shock factor.
• Overall bizarre.

Afterthoughts:

I don’t regret reading this, but I don’t see myself reading the other books in this series.

Where to buy the book: