Go Ask Alice is a 1971 novel by Beatrice Sparks that bills itself the "real-life diary" of an anonymous teenage girl. It has sold over four million copies, was adapted as a TV movie with William Shatner, and is still in print over 40 years later. I read it when I was in the seventh grade and was absolutely terrified by the searingly honest portrayal of what (I assumed) it felt like to do drugs.

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Oh my God. This was made up? This was MADE UP? I thought this was a real girl. I THOUGHT THIS COULD HAPPEN TO ME. I thought this was real? Okay, but how made up was this? "Edited" made up or "fiction" made up? HER NAME WASN'T EVEN ALICE? I think I heard about this once, maybe. I think maybe I heard about this a while back, but it just got absorbed into my…