Addiction

Primary category

Go Ask Alice

By Beatrice Sparks

Go Ask Alice presents itself as the private diary of an unnamed American teenager who slides into drug use, runs away and struggles to rebuild her life. First issued in 1971 under the byline Anonymous, it became one of the best-known young adult books of its era and was long read as a true account. Later research has largely undermined that claim and points to Beatrice Sparks, who presented herself as its editor, as the writer, possibly with help. This profile covers the paperback Avon edition, explains how the book works as a cautionary tale, and sets out the authorship dispute and the school-library challenges that shaped its reputation. It is useful for readers interested in 1970s youth culture, drug-prevention writing and the line between memoir and fiction.

Related category

The Glass Castle

A Memoir

By Jeannette Walls

In The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls recounts a childhood shaped by poverty, frequent moves, parental neglect, and fierce family loyalty. Her father, Rex, is intelligent, charismatic, and full of magnificent plans, but his alcoholism repeatedly turns promise into instability. Her mother, Rose Mary, prizes artistic freedom and self-reliance while resisting the ordinary responsibilities of parenthood. Their children consequently learn to find food, manage danger, protect one another, and imagine lives beyond the family’s worsening circumstances. The memoir moves from the American Southwest to Welch, West Virginia, and eventually to New York City, where Jeannette builds an independent adult life. Rather than offering a simple story of villainous parents and heroic escape, Walls examines how love can coexist with anger, shame, admiration, and betrayal. The result is both a family narrative and an inquiry into resilience, memory, poverty, and the difficult work of defining home.