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Go Ask AliceGo Ask Alice is a novel penned by an author referred to only as Anonymous and edited by Beatrice Sparks. The book itself purports to be the actual diary of a drug-addicted teen in the 1970s that has been edited only to remove repetition. Much doubt exists as to the book's veracity. Sparks has subsequently given the vague explanation that she wrote the book herself based on an actual diary but with her own additions inspired by other case studies. The title is from the Jefferson Airplane song, "White Rabbit", which includes the lyrics, "Go ask Alice/When she's ten feet tall". Grace Slick wrote the song after noticing possible drug references in Alice In Wonderland. Sparks has "edited" many other purported diaries including Jay's Journal, the so-called "actual diary" of a teenage boy lured into devil worship which, like Go Ask Alice, actually featured many fictitious additions. Later books were pure fiction where the title gave the story. These included , , and . Snopes has a page discrediting the book's authenticity.http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/askalice.asp Synopsis Capturing the torture and hell of adolescence, it tells the story of the lonely and self-hating female protagonist, under constant pressure from her "perfect" parents. Her first encounter with drugs is when she drinks Coca-Cola at party spiked with LSD. It takes the edge off of her bad feelings but as she delves into the darkness of drug addiction her life becomes consumed with highs and lows. The diary entries vary erratically from optimism to despair. Although there are some out-dated references to hippies and a lot of expired slang, the book continues to be a classic for teens in the present day. Though the debate over its authenticity continues, there is no debating the profound effect its text has had in the last twenty-five years. At the end of the book, the teenager is finally happy and over her drug addiction. She decides to stop keeping a diary. Three weeks later, she is found dead from an overdose. The drug she had taken or the circumstances of this overdose are not specified by the book.
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