Go Ask Alice

Insensitive, Poorly Handled, Badly Written, & Rife With Bigotry

I don't care when this takes place; teenagers absolutely do not write or speak like the writer of this very clearly fictional “diary.” The nameless main character - surprisingly, she isn't Alice - sounds like she's doped up and high as a kite long before she ever tries drugs. And she very clearly has anorexia, portrayed in the most pathetically unrealistic and stereotypical manner possible. Just like the sadistic and brutal rape she suffers only to basically never mention any mental health issues or physical issues after, portraying sensitive and very real topics in a respectful and believable light is impossible for this author.

The other contents also didn't age well, either. There's a bit of casual sexism, a hint of racism, and repeated homophobia. For example: a gym teacher tells female students to get stronger for child-bearing, a very dated reference is made to a “Negro spiritual,” and the narrator has a gigantic homophobic tirade emasculating her boyfriend when she finds out he's secretly hooking up with his college roommate. In fact, “the homo route” (NOT my choice of words!) is portrayed as this disgusting, evil thing that bad people on drugs fall into... and is actually used to refer to bisexual people more often than actual gay people because apparently it's impossible to really be gay and even more impossible to be interested in the same sex if you're sober. Pathetic!

Add that to an unsympathetic and obnoxious narrating character who won't stop, stop, stop unnecessarily repeating words for emphasis, and it's clear I wasted my time reading this book. I absolutely hated everything about the experience and only finished it out of vague, half-hearted curiosity. It was not worthwhile.

Without spoiling, I'll just say that the ending is the most pathetically sensationalist, insensitive, uncaring, disrespectful way I have ever seen the matter of addiction and its victims handled in any piece of media. This is clearly just an attempt to scare kids away from drugs and not a sincere or plausible exploration of the affect of addiction; as far as this book is concerned, there is zero hope for anyone who ever tries drugs because they will instantly become addicted and once that happens they are a completely lost cause.

Disgustingly biased nonsense, is what this is.

i've heard a lot of people tell me that they were forced to read this as a drug abuse prevention technique in high school, which makes me sad. my teacher gave me this book and wanted me to look for what was wrong with its message, and that's what makes this book important: to start a conversation about how we market and discuss drug abuse.

giving this book to a child in an attempt to stop them from using hard drugs is a mistake. this (probably entirely fictional) story was written to be something that scares you. scare tactics may work with some kids, but for others it might influence them to do just that. scaring children is not a good way of teaching them. instead, sit them down and talk to them about the facts because, believe it or not, kids can be pretty good at listening when you give them the chance. this is another discussion for another day, but i just want everyone to stop and think for a moment before they give this to a kid. it might not have the effect you want.

as a book, something read for pleasure, i derived absolutely no pleasure from having read this. i spent however many weeks reading this for a class assignment, and as much as i enjoyed criticizing this work and what it's used for in academia, i did not enjoy reading it. it scared me, but felt unrealistic all the while, and there was nothing that characterizes good literature in here. read if you want to know the controversy but otherwise skip so as not to waste your time.

1/5