Go Ask Alice [Paperback]

The torture and hell of adolescence has rarely been captured as clearly as it is in this classic diary by an anonymous, addicted teen. Lonely, awkward, and under extreme pressure from her "perfect" parents, "Anonymous" swings madly between optimism and despair. When one of her new friends spikes her drink with LSD, this diarist begins a frightening journey into darkness. The drugs take the edge off her loneliness and self-hate, but they also turn her life into a nightmare of exalting highs and excruciating lows. Although there is still some question as to whether this diary is real or fictional, there is no question that it has made a profound impact on millions of readers during the more than 25 years it has been in print. Despite a few dated references to hippies and some expired slang, Go Ask Alice still offers a jolting chronicle of a teenager's life spinning out of control. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The Boston Globe ...a book that all teenagers and parents of teenagers should really read.

School Library Journal This novel in diary form powerfully depicts the confusions of adolescence. Its impact cannot be denied.

The New York Times [This] extraordinary work for teenagers is a document of horrifying reality and literary quality.

Library Journal An important book, this deserves as wide a readership as libraries can give it.

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.

For thirty-five years, the acclaimed, bestselling first-person account of a teenage girl's harrowing decent into the nightmarish world of drugs has left an indelible mark on generations of teen readers. As powerful -- and as timely -- today as ever, Go Ask Alice remains the definitive book on the horrors of addiction.

The author of O has been in the room with Barack Obama and wishes to remain anonymous. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

September 16

Yesterday I remember thinking I was the happiest person in the whole earth, in the whole galaxy, in all of God's creation. Could that only have been yesterday or was it endless light-years ago? I was thinking that the grass had never smelled grassier, the sky had never seemed so high. Now it's all smashed down upon my head and I wish I could just melt into the blaaaa-ness of the universe and cease to exist. Oh, why, why, why can't I? How can I face Sharon and Debbie and the rest of the kids? How can I? By now the word has gotten around the whole school, I know it has! Yesterday I bought this diary because I thought at last I'd have something wonderful and great and worthwhile to say, something so personal that I wouldn't be able to share it with another living person, only myself. Now like everything else in my life, it has become so much nothing.

I really don't understand how Roger could have done this to me when I have loved him for as long as I can remember and I have waited all my life for him to see me. Yesterday when he asked me out I thought I'd literally and completely die with happiness. I really did! And now the whole world is cold and gray and unfeeling and my mother is nagging me to clean up my room. How can she nag me to clean up my room when I feel like dying? Can't I even have the privacy of my own soul?

Diary, you'll have to wait until tomorrow or I'll have to go through the long lecture again about my attitude and my immaturity.

See ya.

Copyright © 1971 by Simon & Schuster --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

This "classic" about a girl's struggle with drug addiction is still being read widely by young adults. Written in diary form, it covers a year in the life of a 15-year-old as she's first introduced to drugs and then as she tries and fails repeatedly to shake the habit. Moore does an excellent job with the difficult task of narrating the diary entries, which are repetitious and noticably lacking in action. Nevertheless, Moore reads with great emotion and is convincing as a teenaged girl. As she reads each entry, the listener knows from the outset, just from the tone of her voice, whether the main character is on or off drugs. Unfortunately, even her impeccable performance isn't enough to keep this from becoming tedious. This audiobook would have been much more successful in abridged form. S.S.R. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.