Lucy in the Sky

March 19, 2012
More sensational than thought-provoking, this diary of a teenage drug addict traces a 16-year-old girl’s downward spiral, beginning with her introduction to alcohol and marijuana and moving on to pretty much every other drug on the market. Driving home the “This could be you!” message, the narrator is portrayed as entirely ordinary: she comes from a loving middle-class family, thinks writing in a diary is “lame” at first, and regularly crushes on boys. The main focus is on the girl’s growing obsession with getting high as she makes one mistake after another, hanging out with an older crowd, trusting the wrong people, brushing aside her older brother’s concerns, and persuading herself she’s in control. The girl-next-door narration relies on clichés and superfluous exclamations (“And then I realized that I felt good! Really good! Deep down to my feet good!”), emphasizing the protagonist’s naïveté. Echoing the theme and structure of Go Ask Alice, this inelegant cautionary tale paints an appropriately horrific picture of addiction, but offers little insight beyond what is taught in drug education programs. Ages 14–up.

June 1, 2012

Gr 9 Up-Taking place in under a year's time, an anonymous diary details a teen's nightmarish descent into drug abuse. The unnamed protagonist has a loving family and a seemingly happy life. Over the course of several weeks, she is rebuffed by her math tutor; meets Lauren and Ross, who are new in town; and Blake, an older boy, expresses romantic interest in her. Her new friendships, coupled with her feelings of inadequacy, result in her downward spiral. A few simple experimentations with marijuana lead to ecstasy, LSD, cocaine, meth, and heroin. School, an attempted rape, and finding her boyfriend and best friend in bed together give her motivation to stop, but the endeavors are short-lived. Although her older brother knows what's going on, he doesn't tell their parents. A bender almost kills her and she winds up in rehab. It seems to work until the last entry, an article detailing her death from an overdose. An obvious Go Ask Alice for the modern age, this title lacks authenticity. The protagonist's voice sounds like an adult writing as a teenager. The girl's parents are present and caring, but their clueless behavior seems inconsistent with the portrayal of a loving family unit. Despite the flaws, this quick read will especially appeal to reluctant readers and Ellen Hopkins's fans.-Kefira Phillipe, Nichols Middle School, Evanston, IL

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2012
An unapologetic contemporary imitation of anonymous faux-diary Go Ask Alice. The book begins on the unnamed teen diarist's 16th birthday. Her writing is sometimes stream-of-consciousness, though it sometimes recounts events. It is never more eloquent than when she describes the experience of being high on the various drugs she tries. Readers wondering about the immediate effects of alcohol, marijuana, pills, cocaine and more will find their curiosity piqued. Descriptions like "It's like someone has shuffled all the cards in your head... you feel AMAZING and you're seeing these INCREDIBLE THINGS" evoke pleasure and a sense of discovery. Negative experiences like a DUI, broken promises to quit and watching a friend grow increasingly gaunt and non-functional serve as warnings. There is character development here: Readers see the diarist transform from a shy, insecure girl with few friends into part of an intimate social group. The relationship between the diarist and her older brother Cam is one of the most compelling, and readers see him struggling to balance his loyalty to his sister against his concern for her safety. The book's cautionary ending feels abrupt and ineffective, perhaps because scaring readers straight was never really the point. Both engrossing and titillating; readers curious about drugs and readers who wouldn't dream of touching them will find satisfaction here. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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July 1, 2012
This book "in the tradition of Go Ask Alice" (i.e., bogus found-journal) follows one teen's spiral from good girl to drug addict to worse. All the capital-I Issues are covered: gateway drugs, date rape, betrayal, denial, self-loathing, etc. While the unnamed narrator's cautionary tale is unlikely to scare anyone straight, her voice is believably modern-sounding and the story is diverting.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)