Text only (Beatrice Spark’s or “Anonymous” Go Ask Alice | Prentice Hall, 1971 | Evee Douglas | August 25, 2024)

So I know that this book is bullshit and all, but I kinda wanted to talk about some of the things that really bothered me about it.

1. Her trying acid before weed. It seems so odd that people like the author say weed is a gateway drug yet she has her try acid first.

2. She sells drugs to a 9 year old. I’m not saying that it never happens but I’m pretty sure it’s quite rare for anyone to sell drugs to kids that young.

3. She breezes over the heroin rape scene like nothing traumatizing happened. Plus she blames the drugs for the rape and not the people who actually committed the horrific act.

4. There’s this thing that pops up a couple times, rather subtly, but it’s overwhelmingly stupid to me. It’s the implication that drugs make people gay or trans.

5. When she returns home the second time all of the kids at school who use drugs suddenly hate her for being clean and bully her for it. This seems wildly inaccurate. They even threaten to drug her little sister, like in what world does that shit happen?

6. This one is more personal taste, but her writing is repetitive and kind of annoying. She says things like “I do! I really do!” And “It was so good, good, good!” Who the hell writes like that in a diary?

7. On top of that, it begs the question, how likely is it that anyone going through that would keep a consistent diary the whole time? Like she runs away from home in a drug fueled delirium and… brings her journal with her? The fuck?

8. And then there’s the ending. She’s doing better, life is looking up and then out of the blue she overdoses. Sure it’s possible for that to happen, but it’s the message behind it that bothers me. Pair it with the theme of “After you’ve had it, there isn’t even life without drugs” and it implies that recovery is hopeless and anyone who’s ever done drugs is automatically fucked and going to end up dead because of them.

One other note: When she’s in the asylum, she refers to two likely autistic or mentally disabled individuals as “stupid” “dummies” and “dum dums”. That pissed me off.

Anyway, I’d like to hear your opinions too if you want to share. Those were just my main thoughts on it overall.