Go Ask Alice discussion

The book seemed so pointless and so unreal... there was just so much going on and it kept describing how she felt while on the drugs and it seemed as though the writer wanted the reader to experience it.

But the last page did seem to turn readers agaisnt drugs because she died, but I still think it was a pointless book and a waste of time.

In plus, how the heck did they come up with a title?!? Her friend Alice was mentioned in the book on like one page. What the heck?!?

I read the book back in high school and thought it was just okay. It's the real life diary of a girl who OD's so that's why it ends suddenly.

The book's title comes from a Jefferson Airplane song called "White Rabbit". If you listen to the song, the title for the book will make more sense. It's about Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole... one pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small. Lots of drug references. Download from iTunes.

Okay I will do that... thanks.

I have not read this book, but it looks like some classic after-school-special-level breathless anti-drug propaganda from the 70's. The chances that this is an actual diary of an actual person are right around zero. Kids lose respect for authority figures when they lie to them about drugs. There are lots of ACTUAL good reasons to not do drugs. There are good reasons to do drugs once in awhile, too. But anyway, I will probably read the book just to make myself mad. But it will probably not lead to me doing acid again anytime soon.

it's actually a really good book. i think that it does a pretty good job portraying what it's like to be on drugs. it shows what can happen, not what will happen. it's realistic. i think that most teenagers should read this book.

I just didn't like this book because it was boring. I heard it says that it was I true story and that was really her diary, but there is no way a teenage girl getting high on drugs keeps a diary like that or any other teenage girl for that matter.

The book is fake. The "editor" Beatrice Sparks wrote it, as well as quite a few other "diaries". They were clearly all written by the same person. Yet, she somehow still wants to maintain that she just manages to get her hands on copies of "anonymous" teenagers diaries, where the teenagers/or families don't wish to be identified. If you read a few more of them, you'll be able to see the similar writing, and the "moral pattern" in them trying to teach teenagers a lessons about the evils of life, like drugs, and sex.

it came out as a effort to prevent the overdose deaths of teens in the 60's and 70's
it can't really be judged by today's standards and it's hard to explain a time when people dying of drug overdoses was shocking and unusual
yes it is going to seem naive and cliched and slightly sophomoric today

I agree with Dimitra... the book is impossible to be kept by a teenager on drugs... there is no way... too unreal. In plus, Go Ask Alice didnt seem to have a point. The editor in my opinion is good... I have read some of the other books she has edited or wrote and they were good, but this particular book was boring and pointless. Totally a waste of time.

My 12-year-old niece just read this for the first time and we were talking about it because, of course, I remember reading it when I was about her age (about 30 years ago). And it, of course, made me terrified, although oddly, not of drugs but of moving to a new place! Lovely. Anyway, remembering how horrible it was and her sort of mytification at the whole thing got me curious and I googled and Sandy's right, it's made up. The woman who "found" it also "found" a bevy of other books on the evils teen-agers face. Ugh. It's such drek. And not even well-written drek. I haven't read James Frey's stuff but at least his "cautionary tale" sounded entertaining and seemed to be believable.

i thought this book was okay... not really great. i highly doubt that it's a real diary; it just didn't read like a real journal. it was too... structured, i guess. idk.

It bored me and I skipped a lot of pages.

I didn't care for this book at all. It was unrealistic. How could a 15 year old drug addict run away from home and start some boutique business? Get real.

I also didn't like how she repeated almost everything three times. And this may seem petty, but she used way too many exclamation points. They made me feel like the character was shouting at me, not like she was excited.

The title came from Grace Slick's (Jefferson Airplane) song; White Rabbit; which I believe is from Alice in Wonderland. It was mentioned in the front of the book.

♥ Brigid ♥ wrote: "i thought this book was okay... not really great. i highly doubt that it's a real diary; it just didn't read like a real journal. it was too... structured, i guess. idk."
It was structured because the producers re-wrote the entries because they were not written correctly. They are not going to put in the diary entries without fixing spelling errors because it would be hard for others to read.

Correction. This is what it says on the front page of the book:

Go Ask Alice is based on the actual diary of a fifteen-year-old girl.

Key words here: BASED ON.

Beatrice Sparks could have taken a diary that said on one page, oh, "I tried drugs today," and used that to make this book. Not saying that's what she did, but none of this seems real. It all happens too fast.

I liked it, but was really disappointed in the end. It left me empty, and I didn't know what to think or feel, like the feelings, emotions, and words got stuck in my throat and all I could do was gasp, and then nothing.

I was really rooting for the girl . . .

Colby wrote: "Correction. This is what it says on the front page of the book:

Go Ask Alice is based on the actual diary of a fifteen-year-old girl.

Key words here: BASED ON.

Beatrice Sparks could have t..."

From what I understand, it's not one girl, but the experiences of many girls. Beatrice Sparks was a therapist, and she just compiled all the experiences of her patients, and put anonymous on the cover so she wouldn't be breaking doctor/patient confidentiality.

I think this is by far one of my favorite books.
It's so off the wall and I love it.

The ending was a huge disappointment though.

Shallow and transparent book of lies and propaganda written as "truth". Insulting to readers' intelligence. If it was sold as fiction I would be less repulsed but to represent it as truth is manipulative and dishonest.

no i didnt like it

Sandy wrote: "The book is fake. The "editor" Beatrice Sparks wrote it, as well as quite a few other "diaries". They were clearly all written by the same person. Yet, she somehow still wants to maintain that s..."

Yep, I have another Beatrice Sparks book at home. I got it at a used bookstore when I was around 13. I don't remember what it's called, but I know it was the "discovered journal" of a teen boy who dabbled in witchcraft and satanism and then *Le Gasp* ended up killing himself right at the end. I don't know how anyone could believe that Go Ask Alice was real; it was such obvious propaganda.

I read it. It was okay. Not the best book for anti-drug propoganda. I think Jefferson Starship cribbed the title and made it into a drug anthem of sorts.

This book wasn't amazing, but it wasn't bad. And everyone's caught up over whether or not it was based on a real diary, or how much of that real diary it was based on. That doesn't really matter. The book is about a girl who does drugs, and what can happen when you do drugs. Maybe her story is far-fetched to some, but in essence, she gets into trouble a lot, has lots of sex, does lots of drugs, etc., etc. I'm not 'experienced' in these things, but it seems like those basic experiences aren't that far-fetched. Maybe the details rub people the wrong way, but the sex and drugs shouldn't. It seems real enough. And it doesn't appeal to me in any way. Which was probably what the 'editor' or 'author' (I don't particularly care either way) was going for.
And it made me not want to do drugs even more than before. Not because I'm an airhead who follows every anti-drug propoganda outlet, but because it drove something home for me; you don't know what will happen when you do drugs. Things can spiral out of control in so many different ways. So the best way to control your drug use is to not do drugs. Seems pretty smart to me.
The only part that really, really impressed me was the ending. She sounded so determined and hopeful (not that I believed her; she was a bit of a ditz, it seemed like), but the fact that her hopefulness is immediately followed by her death just ate away at me. Call me a sucker, but it's true.

i thought it was like a 4.5 cause i seem to connect to the person writing the diary and i just felt a pang when the Epilogue came.

The only thing that sent a pang to my heart was the ending, I felt so bad for her despite myself. Call me heartless for not pitying her before but I didn't and then I did and back and forth until the end.

Fayth wrote: "it's actually a really good book. i think that it does a pretty good job portraying what it's like to be on drugs. it shows what can happen, not what will happen. it's realistic. i think that most ..."

I agree 100% I liked the book, and has anybody seen Alice in Wonderland, where she eats something and grows taller, or shrinks and the whole cat thing is an Hallucination, Im pretty sure that the movie is about a girl on drugs!

Makayla wrote: "Fayth wrote: "it's actually a really good book. i think that it does a pretty good job portraying what it's like to be on drugs. it shows what can happen, not what will happen. it's realistic. i th..."
that's what I'm thinking too! but like wonderland is her adventure through drugs and her name is alice.

:) so you liked the book? i did, even though its written in the 70's LOL :)

wait to me? if to me i liked it, did you?

Biting wrote: "wait to me? if to me i liked it, did you?"

yeah, who else?

whoops, sorry. hehe :)

what did you think of the title?

i think so. But Lewis Carroll did Alice in Wonderland and maybe it means being so happy in drug-land or something.

LOL- jefferson Airplane wrote "white rabbit" (where they got the name for the book)


the thing that really bothers me is knowing if its true or not,
it never tells you in the book or online and it makes me mad. I know that if it were true that they would want to protect the girl who wrote the journal, but if its not then why hide it? WBU WHAT DO YOU THINK:)

I can why the parents or whoever sended in the diary to Beatrice Sparks to edit and publish cause it's a PRIVATE MATTER. go ask alice? It's like solving a puzzle without puzzle peices. maybe two or three when the picture contains 50 pieces. but i remember it mention white rabbit in there. right?

yeah on the title page i think. and i get your point i guess :)

Whether the story was a "real" diary or not didn't really affect me either way. I thought it was a good book. I also read it in high school. Have any of you seen the movie "Thirteen" with Evan Rachel Wood? The movie always reminds me of this book.

i want to read watch Thirteen but this going off topic :P

Biting wrote: "i want to read watch Thirteen but this going off topic :P"

Yes I know, it just always reminds of this book, so really its not off topic ;)

Karen wrote: "This book wasn't amazing, but it wasn't bad. And everyone's caught up over whether or not it was based on a real diary, or how much of that real diary it was based on. That doesn't really matter. T..."

You don't know what will happen even if you're not on drugs... sucker. ;)

Makayla wrote: "..Do you think "Alice in Wonderland" is like kind of based off of "go ask Alice"?

Oh boy, reading that sentence actually made me cringe.

First of all, the movie "Alice in Wonderland" is based on the book "Alice in Wonderland". It was written more than 100 years before "Go Ask Alice", back in the 1800's, so no, "Alice in Wonderland" is not based off of "Go Ask Alice".

Wow, yeah I'm with you Sandy. I really hope Makayla is younger than like age 12 with that question. Nothing wrong with the fact of asking a question, but to ask a question with an answer that couldn't be easier to find without actually asking someone else is ignorance incarnate. If you're reading this Makayla, please don't take offense, but next time simply check the date a book was first published, or try wikipedia.com, or use any of a number of extremely simple patterns of logic.

wow, and after actually reading Makayla's original post, she did use wikipedia.... WOW WOW WOW.

it's an opinion, so nothing wrong with that

I wasn't meaning that "Alice in wonderland" was based off of "go ask Alice" just that where they got the name for the book "white rabbit" reminds me of "Alice in Wonderland"

exactly, JEFF.

Biting, if you mean whether or not "Alice in Wonderland" was based off of "Go Ask Alice", then no, that's not opinion. It's an impossibility.

Makayla; whether you meant it either way, it would be impossible, being as "Alice in Wonderland" is a very old, much loved book published over 100 years before "Go Ask Alice". If you are referring to the song "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, then it should remind you of "Alice in Wonderland", since the lyrics were inspired by the book.

There seems to be some confusion in this thread.

Alice in Wonderland (actual title Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) is a novel written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the nom de plume Lewis Carroll and was published in 1865.

"White Rabbit" is a song by the group Jefferson Airplane, from their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. There are indeed many references to the novel contained within the song including the repetition of the phrase "Go ask Alice". There are also many drug references in the song.

Go Ask Alice by "Anonymous" was published in 1971. It purports to be based on the diary of a young girl on a downward spiral into drug use but is most likely fictional. The title of the book was taken from the lyrics of the Jefferson Airplane song.

Mary wrote: "There seems to be some confusion in this thread.

Alice in Wonderland (actual title Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) is a novel written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the nom de plume Lewis C..."

ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I read this book when I was 15. That year this book hit the market. I won't say much here( I am not into defending a book, each to his own)than to state that after I read 'Go Ask Alice' I never saw any part of taking a drug as 'recreational fun'.
Did the book hold up for todays reader? I am sure it has not. It was a clunky read at times but it also was eye opening.
We were living in a time where there were so many firsts coming at us. Drugs being offered at THAT time was like someone offering a coffee to another that walks into their space in THESE times. I do recall that I was curious though too scared to try what was offered. After I read this book I passed on any drug that was offered with not one spark of curiosity.
A book that had problems I agree but for me personally I was thankful that I read it.