I can't shake the eerie, empty feeling this book has left me with. I finished it at 3 a.m. last night and could not bring myself to fall asleep til 5. .
The way it spirals from a narrative about a sad and innocent young teenager, to a frenzied, nightmarish tale of unending pain and horror... It was particularly terrifying because at the start of the story, the main character is so... relatable. A lonely, book-loving teenager who feels misunderstood by her parents, and only wants someone or something to love. I...sobbed so many times while reading. Because I saw myself, and that doubled, tripled the pain. Through it all, the message is stark and clear:
IT COULD HAPPEN TO ANYONE.
Drugs are dangerous things with a vicious iron grip; lost and hurt kids who succumb to them just to make themselves feel SOMETHING other than abject misery are not weak-minded. Not losers. Not broken or ruined or defeated. They are simply fellow humans in need. I pray that anybody who struggles with addiction, of any sort, finds help before it is too late.
On to more technical aspects. I loved the fragmented pacing and the several subtle shifts in lingo, and the written details that outline unwritten ones? It's pure genius. Go Ask Alice really does read just like a diary. That is not to say that it hasn't got much literary value beyond Angsty Teen Says Angsty Things - no, it's ...beautiful, in a dark and tortured way. It's opressive, it's moving and massive, and above all - frighteningly atmospheric. I felt suffocated and depressed and WOW. I'm blown away, and I'll never read it ever again.







what WAS with that ending though?????