GO ASK ALICE. (a comprehensive book review) 📖

 

"No one in the world but a doper could know the true opposite of depressed."

                                                                                                                - Beatrice Sparks, 1972 


Yesterday Chloe and I were very graciously gifted an entire stack of books from the ever-so-kind Mr Aitken (HOD of English) for our summer reading. I definitely took up this opportunity because I'm travelling for most of my holidays and I'll need lots of books for the long drives, flights, and the 12 hour layover at Sydney Airport I have to endure. 

I received:
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
- Swiss Family Robinson
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret
- Two New Zealand Short Stories books
- Tommo & Hawk
- Save Me From Myself (a Brian Head Welch - a former member of Korn - autobiography)
- Go Ask Alice.

But today we are here to discuss the very first book I read; Go Ask Alice. This is an international bestselling book first published in 1971 by Beatrice Sparks - although she chose to remain anonymous when it was first published, and still is listed as anonymous on the book covers. But thanks to Google, I was able to find out the true author.

This book is written 'diary-style', from the perspective of fifteen year old Alice and her drug addiction and recovery throughout her teenage years. 

A SUMMARY
Alice begins as a good, wholesome Christian girl, but falls into a deep, dark spiral of LSD, pills, heroin, and pot when her drink is spiked with LSD at a party. On the same night she loses her virginity, and the spiral begins. Alice ends up meeting drug dealers, selling drugs via said drug dealers, hitch-hiking to Denver, and finally coming home to her parents where she cleans up. But the light fades for Alice as her grandparents die and she is bullied at school by junkies, purely because she got clean. It's when she's drugged again by her classmates and has an intense trip on LSD, where she hallucinates maggot eating her skin and the baby, and she claws her hair out, busts up her hand and loses fingernails, she is admitted to hospital, and then a mental asylum. When Alice leaves, she is happy. Joel and her kiss at her Dad's very drug-free party, and she is inspired to become a social worker. 
The diary ends on September 21st. Alice concludes this journal with,

"-I hope so, for you are my dearest friend and I shall thank you for always sharing my tears and heartaches and my struggles and my strifes, and my joys and happiness. It's all been good in it's own special way, I guess. See ya."  

Three weeks later, the actual subject the book is based on, died. The cause is unknown, but it certainly raises questions: was it an accidental or intentional overdose? The book ends with a psychologist's comment - a comment that was very well written and heart moving for an adolescent like myself. 

MY THOUGHTS

This book made my top ten favourite books I've ever read. I endured a heart wrenching, harrowing, emotional journey reading it, and it definitely confirmed my aversion to illegal and dangerous drugs. The way the author expertly navigated her way from emotional parts to me internally groaning, 'Alice, don't do it!' was incredible. What's more, the description of when Alice is drug tripping seems so realistic to what it may actually be like to be on LSD. The vivid colours, the dimensions you see the world in, the feeling of floating and unable to control your laughter made me feel like I was actually experiencing the effects of drugs. The most emotional part for me was when I finished on a high note; Alice having taken the high road to recovery and now on her way to becoming a social worker and helping other people, only to find out that she died a mere three weeks later. It was heartbreaking and I have to admit, tears prickled in my eyes.

Overall this is an excellent book for young adults and up. If you are a parent I recommend your children reading this, and if you are children, I recommend you read this to know the importance of staying away from illegal drugs. Reading an experience - based on real life - gave me an insight of what it's really like. I imagined drug addiction to be so much different in teenagers. Trust me, you should read this book. 
11/10: one extra point because I absolutely love unexpected, emotional endings, even the death scenarios, and also the original cover featuring multiple faces definitely hits home for me. 

 "It was awful. And now I feel like the greyness in all the grey days in the world." 

                                                                                                         - Beatrice Sparks, 1972