History Literature / GoAskAlice

* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: There's plenty of sex and drugs, but little or no mention of rock in the book (there's a bit of music in the film, of course). This is one of the least realistic elements. Music, particularly electric amplified rock, acoustic "folk" or "folk-rock", and rock-inspired pop, was one of the driving forces behind 1960s culture and counterculture, ''especially'' the drug scene. Other than the title referencing Jefferson Airplane's ode to LSD, the music isn't nearly as much of a presence as it should be. Sparks probably couldn't have the narrator quoting lyrics without a lot of work to secure copyright permission, but mentioning more artist names and song ''titles'' could have provided additional credence.

''Go Ask Alice'' is a novel first published in 1971. It is the story of a troubled teenage girl who seeks solace in drugs and the counterculture of TheSixties, and comes to grief as a result. It is famous for its DrugsAreBad message, being classic UsefulNotes/SchoolStudyMedia, being frequently challenged for its references to drugs, sex, and rape, and being a fictional story (confirmed several times, most recently in 2022). Although it was originally presented anonymously as the RealLife diary of a young drug addict, it is actually the work of Beatrice Sparks, [[BasedOnAGreatBigLie who claimed that it was real for a number of years]] before questions about the book's authenticity brought forth the truth.

The novel is a dark ComingOfAgeStory that takes the form of a "diary", the keeper of which is [[NoNameGiven not named]]. (Readers usually call her Alice, from the title, or Carla, based on a remark she drops late in the story.[[note]]Rick Emerson, author of ''Unmask Alice'' which reveals the details of Sparks' deceptive practices, found the real woman alive and well and calls her Brenda March, but emphasizes that's not her real name, either.[[/note]]) She's a sensitive 15-year-old girl, alienated from her conservative parents and initially with few friends, having just moved to a new town. When she does start making friends and discovers '60s counterculture, she also encounters drugs. Her first experience is benign: she is unwittingly given LSD at her friend Jill's birthday party and has a pleasant trip.

[[caption-width-right:300:Okay, two things; 1) her name is ''not'' Alice, and 2) this is ''not'' a true story.]]

''Go Ask Alice'' is a novel first published in 1971. It is the story of a troubled young woman who seeks solace in drugs and the counterculture. She comes to grief as a result. It is famous for its DrugsAreBad message, being banned for references to sex, rape and drugs, and [confirmed several times, most recently in 2022] being a fake. Rather than being a RealLife diary of a young drug addict, it is the work of Beatrice Sparks, [[BasedOnAGreatBigLie who attempted to pass it off as true for a number of years]]. It is classic UsefulNotes/SchoolStudyMedia.

The novel is a dark ComingOfAgeStory. The work takes the form of a "diary", the keeper of which is [[NoNameGiven not named]]. Readers usually call her Alice, from the title, or Carla, based on a remark she drops late in the story.[[note]]Rick Emerson, author of ''Unmask Alice'' which reveals the details of Sparks' deceptive practices, found the real woman alive and well and calls her Brenda March, but emphasizes that's not her real name either.[[/note]] She's a sensitive fifteen-year-old girl, alienated from her conservative parents and initially with few friends, having just moved to a new town. When she does start making friends and discovers the TheSixties counterculture, she also encounters drugs. Her first experience is benign: she is unwittingly given LSD at her friend Jill's birthday party and has a pleasant trip.

Losing her virginity while on LSD, she feels guilty about this and her drug use. With female friend Chris she takes to dealing drugs for their respective boyfriends. Upon discovering said boyfriends having sex with each other, they leave for UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco, leaving their families as well. ([[https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/01/22/queer-reading-go-ask-alice/ Drugs apparently make you gay as well]], although the narrator has already had romantic feelings towards women before trying drugs. Horrors!!!)

In San Francisco, they move into a small apartment and get jobs. Their vow to stay clean does not last--in fact, they use harder drugs. While on heroin at a party, both girls are raped. They return home for Christmas, again vow to stay off drugs, again relapse, and this time are busted and our heroine gets probation. Running away again she spends the next few weeks in a drug-induced haze skirting along the West Coast. In her sober moments, she is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horrified at what she's become]] and again returns home, determined to stay off drugs for real this time. However, she's now harassed by her former stoner friends who accuse her of being a "fink" and frame her for drug possession. After inadvertently ingesting acid (planted by her former friends) and suffering a nearly-fatal bad trip, the narrator is sent to an asylum, where she sorta bonds with a younger and even more broken girl named Babbie.

The portrayal of Sixties drug culture (and "hippie" references) is limited, and in fact laughably inaccurate. Tellingly, UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement, general political protest and music are scarcely mentioned. It works best as a critique of the hedonistic excesses of the psychedelic movement. As a "warning work," it has similarities to ''Literature/RequiemForADream''. It has a similar theme of disenchanted youth going off the rails as is found in ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye''.

Adapted into a 1973 MadeForTVMovie starring Creator/WilliamShatner, Creator/AndyGriffith, and (ironically, given her own drug use at the time) Creator/MackenziePhillips, among others.

In 2022, Rick Emerson published a book, ''[[https://www.bookpeople.com/book/9781637740422 Unmask Alice]]'', which reveals [[https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2022/06/was-go-ask-alice-the-original-literary-con the truth about this classic literary hoax]] and about the real tragedy behind her later work, ''Jay's Journal''. Sparks was a Mormon youth counselor hellbent on Being Somebody, and she didn't care what lies she had to tell or whose memories she had to destroy to get there.

* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: Ostensibly the real diary of a teenage girl, it was in fact entirely fabricated by Sparks. She later released a series of other "true diaries" in the same vein, but dealing with different subjects, such as AIDS (''It Happened to Nancy''), teen pregnancy (''Annie's Baby''), and depression-linked Satanism, we kid you not (''Jay's Journal''). According to Rick Emerson's research, Sparks likely took inspiration from the troubles of a real teenage girl she worked with at a Mormon summer camp, but the diary, and Carla/"Alice", are entirely Spark's fabrications.
++Ironically, the success of ''Go Ask Alice'' convinced the family of Alden Barrett--a teenage boy suffering from depression that drove him to commit suicide at age 16--to give their late son's journal to Sparks for editing, in hopes that she would turn the journal into a cautionary tale for other parents of at-risk children. Instead, Sparks expanded a single mention of the occult into a major theme of the book. The result, titled ''Jay's Journal,'' depicts Jay as a Satan worshipper who sacrifices animals, drinks blood, and is ultimately driven to suicide by a demon he has summoned. Of the 212 "entries" in ''Jay's Journal,'' ''187'' were found to have been fabricated by Sparks. Meanwhile, after the book's publication, Barrett's gravesite was repeatedly vandalized by both religious extremists claiming he was burning in hell, and by would-be Satanists who conducted rituals at his grave--as despite how much of the book she made up wholesale, Sparks left in plenty of identifying details. Barrett's parents later claimed that Sparks had tarnished their child's memory and ruined their lives. Barrett's brother Scott later wrote a rebuttal to ''Jay's Journal'' titled ''A Place in the Sun.''

Adapted into a 1973 MadeForTVMovie starring Creator/WilliamShatner, Creator/AndyGriffith, and (ironically given her own drug use at the time) Creator/MackenziePhillips, among others.

Adapted into a 1973 MadeForTVMovie starring Creator/WilliamShatner, Andy Griffith, and (ironically given her own drug use at the time) Creator/MackenziePhillips, among others.

++Ironically, the success of ''Go Ask Alice'' convinced the family of Alden Barrett--a teenage boy suffering from depression that drove him to commit suicide at age 16--to give their late son's journal to Sparks for editing, in hopes that she would turn the journal into a cautionary tale for other parents of at-risk children. Instead, Sparks expanded a single mention of the occult into a major theme of the book. The result, titled ''Jay's Journal,'' depicts Jay as a Satan worshipper who sacrifices animals, drinks blood, and is ultimately driven to suicide by a demon he has summoned. Of the 212 "entries" in ''Jay's Journal,'' ''187'' were found to have been fabricated by Sparks. Meanwhile, after the book's publication, Barrett's gravesite was repeatedly vandalized by both religious extremists claiming he was burning in hell, and by would-be Satanists who conducted rituals at his grave. Barrett's parents later claimed that Sparks had tarnished their child's memory and ruined their lives. Barrett's brother Scott later wrote a rebuttal to ''Jay's Journal'' titled ''A Place in the Sun.''

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ask_alice_ghostwipe.jpg Okay, two things; 1) her name is ''not'' Alice, and 2) this is ''not'' a true story.]]

* DanBrowned: The book is not the result of researching a real account. It is fiction.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ask_alice_ghostwipe.jpg]]

''Go Ask Alice'' is a novel by youth counsellor Beatrice Sparks, first published in 1971. It is the story of a troubled young woman who seeks solace in drugs and the counterculture. She comes to grief as a result. It is famous for its DrugsAreBad message, being banned for references to sex, rape and drugs, and [confirmed several times, most recently in 2022] being a fake. Rather than being a RealLife diary of a young drug addict, it is the work of Beatrice Sparks, [[BasedOnAGreatBigLie who attempted to pass it off as true for a number of years]]. It is classic UsefulNotes/SchoolStudyMedia.

* MyNameIsNotShazam: As noted above, Alice is not the protagonist's name. Officially she's "anonymous", though a quote from a drug dealer's child indicates her name is possibly Carla. As she's writing about an unpleasant man who supplies her with heroin in exchange for oral sex -- "another day, another blow job" -- she comments "Everybody is just lying around here like they're dead and Little Jacon is hollering "Mama, Daddy can't come right now. He's humping Carla." How she is writing ''while'', not ''after'', having coitus, only Beatrice Sparks knows. There ''is'' a minor character named "Alice"; however, she isn't the protagonist.[[note]]When the narrator is getting ready for her parents to come and get her, she asks various people what they feel they want, and Alice says she doesn't know if she's running ''to'' something or ''away'' from something, but at heart she wants to go home.[[/note]] The MadeForTVMovie adaptation goes ahead and gives her name as Alice, presumably because ViewersAreMorons.