Note to reader!

I try not to reveal too much of the book's major plots but some times I can't help it to give an overall idea of what I personally thought. I try not to ruin the book for anyone and sorry if I do so. Any of the books I write about have been read recently so that the review is fresh in my mind. Some books I will reread and post again later but if you have a request let me know, it will take me a while to go through my library again.

Also I try very hard to find the cover art from the actual book that I have some times this is not possible and I may result to a more common known cover. At no time will I ever post a book cover with a movie poster on it I like the originality and imagination of books movies just ruin what the readers imagination is capable of creating.

Rating Scale: The books I post here will be set on a rating scale. The scale being from 1-5 one being most likely to read again and 5 being least likely to read again.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Go Ask Alice

Go Ask Alice Plot Summary
The holidays are officially over and it's back to the grind.  I picked this book up at Target of all places with some Christmas money, mostly because it sounded not boring.  I'm not sure if Target really defines fiction vs. non-fiction so when I picked this book up I did not notice which category this book fell into.  I was going on face value and the cover description.  All I knew is that once again I had chosen teen literature.

This book was portrayed as a teen's private diary detailing her tragic downward spiral into drugs Anne Frank style (the diary part not the drug part).  This image was further encouraged by the lack of an author and the almost complete absence of names and, very generalized locations throughout the book.  As I began to read the book, it seemed to read as more of a cautionary tail rather than a true depiction of events.  I looked at the publication date which was the early 70's the early years of the drug revolution, as  I see it anyway.  I know drugs were big in 60's but still they were becoming more widely publicized in the late 60s early 70s, am I showing my age?  This furthered my doubt about the legitimacy of this "diary."  Turns out the "true" diary part of the story was a fabrication.  The book was written by a pseudo-psychiatrist that published several books using the diary style of writing.  The "true diaries" it seems were mostly the author's elaborations combined with very small amounts of true journal entries from troubled teens.

I wouldn't say I enjoyed the book because as the context would suggest it is not a book you enjoy.  It was a tragic story that I finished within 2 days.  The writer did a good job in building a relationship with the main character, I felt sorry for her, and the terrible web she was thrust into, at first, not of her own choosing.  The authors style of writing made it easier to connect with the character and feel remorse for her; when you compound that with the final sentences of the epilogue (basically somewhere out there very similar things are happening to teens every day and everywhere) it's almost heartbreaking.  That being said, I found that the sequence of events seemed a little hasty.  The entire book took place over a period of about a year and a half and I can't believe that in so short a time an underage girl can become hopelessly addicted to drugs, deal them at school, move out and come back twice, get clean with no withdrawals, and then ending the way it did within such a short time frame.  I have always heard that if you do drugs once that's all it takes and your whole life goes to hell, but such a waterfall of events in such a short time is astounding.  Having no personal experience to verify that this is how the world of no drugs to heavy drug use works I assume it was an accelerated dramatization to help discourage teen drug use.   If I haven't already painted the picture for you the book was a downer but if you don't mind the buzz kill it's a decent quick read.  I don't know how I feel about it for the youth of America but I may be just showing my age again.

Rating ~ 3

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