Editorial Review
January 24thAfter 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.
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Customer Reviews
Who cares if it's a hoax!?! 
2008-04-26
What does it matter if this is book is a work of fiction (a "hoax" as some reviewers have called it)?! When I read it as a 13 y/o (back in the early 80's) it scared the crap out of me. It did its job of helping to keep me off drugs. What's wrong with that!?!
Still a Classic and Unforgettable Tale! 
2008-04-12
Go Ask Alice was one of those novels that I grew up with remembering quite clearly. As a child who loved to read, Go Ask Alice was one of the best pre-teen novels of my generation. Of course, it's been 20 years since I last picked up the book but I still remember it as it was yesterday. A young girl who becomes addicted to drugs and the fall of her life afterwards. I think all children over ten years old should read this book regardless of how people who reviewed this book here. First, it's for children and not really for adults. It will take the readers' into the mind of a young girl, Alice, and help them realize the downside of drugs which still plague the nation. This book is a winner and memorable if not because it has inspired me not to take Alice's road to self-destruction.
A comically, corny hoax and terrible read 
2008-03-27
I was killing time in a small bookstore when I came across this and remember vaguely hearing about it years before. As I paid for it, the clerk raved about what a great book it was. I couldn't disagree more and wonder if he actually read it himself.
It seemed pretty clear almost immediately that these "entries" weren't the writings of a real teenager, let alone one who was experiencing any of the things this girl was supposedly experiencing. If the writers of "The Brady Bunch" misguidedly wanted to to write a cautionary tale to warn teenagers of the evils of drugs, it might have come out a lot like this book.
Nothing about it rang true, and the dialog was excruciatingly lame, even considering the time it was supposedly written in and the age or the supposed writer. After completing it, I wasn't at all surprised to find out it was confirmed to be a hoax. Not hard to picture the real middle-aged female author trying hard to imagine and capture what she thought was the voice of a teenage girl, but failing miserably.
How anyone besides June Cleaver could believe any part of this book was true is mind-bogglin to me.
stupid 2008-02-22
This book is nothing but stupid anti-drug fiction. If you want to see that the biggest problem with drugs is the people against them, or if you are an idiot buy this book.
It kept me off drugs! 2008-02-11
I read this book in the 70s, when I was 14 or 15. (On my old copy, Beatrice Sparks gets no mention). It seemed completely believable as a teenager's diary. Since it was edited, we don't know what was in the original that got cut out. (If you've read the "completed" Anne Frank diary compared to the popular version, you'll see some of the stuff concerning school friends got deleted because it was not relevant to the overall mission of talking about her hiding experience). What I do know for sure was that it told me all I ever needed to know about drugs and kept me from trying them. I felt like I'd experienced the highs and the lows just from reading the book. Some readers have complained that the teen writer used words that were too "big"? Well, I used similar words in my own personal diary. Maybe teenagers were better educated back then! What I did find hard to believe was the compression of time -- that she got her business up and running and successful in about 2 months or so and then left it. But overall, a great book to read. Even if it is not completely "true", I'm sure the experiences are true of drug addicts.
we get it already... 2008-06-24
There seem to be a lot of reviews written for this book bashing it. We get it...you're angry that this is a work of fiction and isn't, in all actuality, a true, bona fide account. Unfortunately for you, you will find that most books contain fiction.
Yes the book says that teenagers shouldn't do drugs or get pregnant. I see nothing wrong with this message (although I will admit that the author could have gone about it in a different way). Yes, the book seems to fit all drug addict stereotypes, and yes it insinuates that LSD and marijuana can be addicting. NEWSFLASH! They are called stereotypes because a large amount of people FIT INTO THEM...and although drugs such as LSD and marijuana aren't physically addicting, they are mentally addicting.
Overall, this book is a good read and sends a sensible (if somewhat cookie-cutter, brainwashy) message.
P.S. Just because books aren't "literary classics" doesn't mean that they aren't good books. Maybe some people should be glad that people are reading anything at all, or even writing anything at all, rather than gripe about WHAT is being read or written...
Thumbs up. 2008-06-22
Definitely a book that evokes emotions and can be related to in some at least distant way, shape or form by most individuals. It's a quick and easy read, so even if one doesn't like it, he/she can't really regret reading it.
Timeless diary - and a challenge for todays teen 2008-06-16
Yes, this is a work of fiction as others point out. Yes, it's an older book (...what no raiding of the parents drug cabinets? noone knew sudafed could be used for anything but a sinus infection? Had it even been invented?? Heck, people wouldn't even know what a "cutter" was then, and Karen Carpenter had yet to die and make anorexia an everyday term, no cell phones, texts or ipods mentioned??...) And yet, still...
Still, this could be the diary of any teen today that finds themselves in the grip of life beyond their control (and perhaps there's every reason to believe it's harder to control than ever)- and unable to reclaim it. It's a timeless theme, and it's well-written to stand that test of time. I challenge any teen to read it --- knowing it was written in their parent's day - and not find that in some ways the world hasn't changed.
White Rabbit 2008-06-05
I read this book in school when I was 15 years old and I just had to have a copy for myself.
To anyone that has ever had a brush with the drug world as a teenager and lived throught it...THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU !!!
Umm...Yeah 
2008-04-29
Wow...
So I was forced to read this book for a mother daughter book club and besides the fact that I was scared out of my wits, I think that it was a pretty good book. It isn't anything that I would ever pick up on my own, but there are definitely people out there that would like it. If you enjoy books like Perfect, or Drowning Anna, I would recommend it. If you are the sort of person who would rather read about things that are happy, or can't read creapy things before going to sleep, then this is NOT the book for you!
I would say that overall it an ok book, especially if you are in a group so you can discuss the contents. Also, don't read the epilogue!! It is completely depressing, I don't know why the author added it.
