The Harsh Reality of a Teen Addict
Written: Sep 30 '00 (Updated Sep 30 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Gives parents the opportunity to see what could happen
Cons: Is aimed at young adults, glorifies drugs for the most part
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| dandj's Full Review: |
One pill makes you larger, And one pill makes you small, And the ones that mother gives you, Don't do anything at all. Go ask Alice.
The above lyrics are from the song White Rabbit written and performed by singer Grace Slick in 1967. When the diary of a young-girl-turned-drug-addict was published as a book in 1971, the title Go Ask Alice was taken from that song.
The book is promoted as a "real diary", but that is a highly debated issue. What is interesting to note is that when I did a little research, the book is shown as Go Ask Alice by Anonymous, James Jennings. What makes this interesting is that Jennings' name appears in many books that are listed as "anonymous", and not as the editor.
But whether or not it is non-fiction should not be the real issue. The importance of this book is the knowledge it holds and the point it makes. However, I believe that it has been directed toward the wrong audience. The fact that this book has been banned in many areas is not surprising. It is definitely not one which I will be allowing my children to read either for entertainment or for the purposes of drug abuse education.
"Alice", in many entries, glorifies the effects of drugs. Even when she is determined to stay clean, she basically states that it is not because of the drugs themselves, but rather the consequences....
Sure, it's great and groovie going on trips, I will never be able to say it isn't. It's exciting and colorful and dangerous, but it isn't worth it! It simply isn't worth it!
And, at one point, she and a friend run away and own a successful business. This is teaching a lesson? What lesson is that exactly?
The few times "Alice" mentions her reasons for wanting to stay off drugs are overpowered by her many ravings about how wonderful it is not only to be high, but also how fantastic sex is when wasted.
....introduced me to torpedos on Friday and Speed on Sunday. They are both like riding shooting stars through the Milky Way, only a million, trillion times better....I felt great, free, abandoned, a different, improved, perfected specimen of a different, improved, perfected species. It was wild! It was beautiful! It really was.
"Alice" takes the reader on a journey through the pathetic, and sometimes thoroughly disgusting, existence of a teenage drug addict and runaway. We become privy to her every thought, watch her as she repeatedly attempts to straighten herself out, then crashes back into a drug-induced oblivion. She becomes a prisoner, not only of her addiction, but also of those people she offends and who are determined to make her pay...and they do.
Ask "Alice" about the rewards and consequences of drug abuse? I don't think so. As the book says You can't ask Alice anything anymore. At barely seventeen, "Alice" is defeated. And if this book is truly based on the actual diary of a real girl, the question will always remain...why is she gone? After succeeding in turning her life around--having a boyfriend and finally being happy--would she really, out of the blue, take an overdose? Or did it happen at the hands of someone else? We will never know.
What we do know is how she lived, what she thought, and how relentless is the hold over teenage addicts.
Read this book, learn what it attempts to teach, but I would never recommend you let your child do the same.
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This review is one of many written by myself and other fellow Epinionators to commemorate Banned Book Week (September 23-30).
Check out the great reviews by these other members.....
Elorraine--The Great Gilly Hopkins
wildvirgogirl--The Boy Who Lost His Face
teskue and jenninca--Bridge to Terabithia
frazzledspice--Flowers for Algernon
Penguinlady--I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
janesbit1--Huckleberry Finn
jennifer_gibbons--Bastard Out of California
eric_james--Summer of My Soldier
elizajane--Harry Potter books
jgibson2--Witches
erik_kosberg--Of Mice and Men
susanwhipple--Blubber by Judy Blume
foxfroggy--Wrinkle in Time
kinganamort--Lady Chatterly's Lover
kurt_messick--Catcher in the Rye
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dandj
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Member: Danielle Reid
Location: Michigan
Reviews written: 438
Trusted by: 113 members
About Me:
In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season ~ Dave Barry
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