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A review by crackedspines_
Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks
3.0
While there is a significant controversy regarding how realistic and authentic this book is, it provided an interesting perspective. I would recommend this book to others in the field, but only because it is one of the most well-known books about addiction and I think it’s important to be knowledgeable about high-profile literature in the field. However, after doing some research I am unsure about how much credibility we can give this book as a real diary. I want to believe that it is real, but there is much pointing to it being completely made up by the so-called editor, Beatrice Sparks, most importantly that she is the only author listed on the copyright records. In addition, when asked about the original diary, Sparks didn’t have much to offer. She claimed the diaries had been given to her by a patient so that her parents wouldn’t read them. After her death, Sparks decided to create Go Ask Alice, and to keep her promise to the teen, mixed in stories based on her experiences with other clients. Sparks said that as she edited, she destroyed the original diary. Additionally, Sparks is listed as a PhD on her resume and the book jackets of the diaries she published, but researchers have found no evidence of her degree.
I also find Sparks’ reported motive for publishing this book unsettling. She says she chose to publish this, along with the other diaries she has published, as a warning to teens. But this would imply that addiction is the addict’s fault. Pertaining to Go Ask Alice specifically, Carla was given LSD without her knowledge. There is no way to avoid a situation like that. She didn’t choose to start taking drugs. And it has some disturbing implications for her diaries that deal with eating disorders and rape. Many of the topics that her books cover aren’t avoidable things; they are often the result of someone forcing situations onto them. So, what’s the use in attempting to warn teenagers not to get involved in such behaviors? It’s also been proven that scare tactics aren’t effective. It is much more helpful and productive to arm children with knowledge and facts and then let them make their own decisions. This way, if they do decide to do something considered undesirable by adults, they can do so in the safest way possible. That is one things the book did well, I suppose. Since it was supposedly written by a person who was doing drugs, it presented the positive sides of using them as well as the negatives.
I also find Sparks’ reported motive for publishing this book unsettling. She says she chose to publish this, along with the other diaries she has published, as a warning to teens. But this would imply that addiction is the addict’s fault. Pertaining to Go Ask Alice specifically, Carla was given LSD without her knowledge. There is no way to avoid a situation like that. She didn’t choose to start taking drugs. And it has some disturbing implications for her diaries that deal with eating disorders and rape. Many of the topics that her books cover aren’t avoidable things; they are often the result of someone forcing situations onto them. So, what’s the use in attempting to warn teenagers not to get involved in such behaviors? It’s also been proven that scare tactics aren’t effective. It is much more helpful and productive to arm children with knowledge and facts and then let them make their own decisions. This way, if they do decide to do something considered undesirable by adults, they can do so in the safest way possible. That is one things the book did well, I suppose. Since it was supposedly written by a person who was doing drugs, it presented the positive sides of using them as well as the negatives.