Editing Go Ask Alice (section)

===Critical response===
''Go Ask Alice'' received positive initial reviews, including praise from Webster Schott in ''[[The New York Times]]'', who called it an "extraordinary work", a "superior work" and a "document of horrifying reality [that] possesses literary quality".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/05/07/archives/childrens-books-what-do-yas-read.html|title=Childrens Books|last=Schott|first=Webster|date=1972-05-07|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-05-26|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> It was also recommended by ''[[Library Journal]]'', ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'', and ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]'',<ref name=adams /> and ranked number 1 on the [[American Library Association]]'s 1971 list of Best Books for Young Adults.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carr |first1=Mary |last2=Van Horn |first2=Carole |date=1972 |title=Books for Children and Young People: Critical Health Problems|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MvUaAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA316 |journal=Wisconsin Library Bulletin |volume=67-68   |issue=September–October 1972 |pages=316 |edition=Google Books |publication-date=2006-10-12 |publisher=Division of Library Services, Department of Public Instruction |access-date=2017-03-04  }}</ref> Some reviews focused on the realism of the book's material, without further addressing the literary merit of the book.<ref name=durchschlag /><ref name=janke /><ref name=adams /><ref>{{cite magazine|date=1971-09-14 |title=Go Ask Alice by Anonymous |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anonymous-3/go-ask-alice/ |magazine=[[Kirkus Reviews]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170106211907/https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/anonymous-3/go-ask-alice/ |archive-date=2017-01-06 |url-status=live |access-date=2017-01-06 }}</ref> According to Nilsen and Lauren Adams, the book was not subjected to the regular forms of literary criticism because it was presumed to be the real diary of a dead teenager.<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /><ref name=adams /> Lina Goldberg has suggested that the publishers were motivated to list the author as "Anonymous" partly to avoid such criticism.<ref name=goldberg />

Years after its publication, ''Go Ask Alice'' continued to receive some good reviews, often in the context of defending the book against censors (see [[#Censorship|Censorship]]).<ref name=chapman /> In a 1995 ''[[Village Voice]]'' column for [[Banned Books Week]], [[Nat Hentoff]] described it as "an extraordinarily powerful account of what it's actually like to get hooked on drugs" that "doesn't preach".<ref>{{cite news |last=Hentoff |first=Nat |author-link=Nat Hentoff |date=1995-10-03 |title=Ralph Reed's Reading List |page=10 | work=The Village Voice |location=New York City |via=ProQuest  }}</ref>

However, starting in the 1990s, the book began to draw criticism for its heavy-handedness, melodramatic style and inauthenticity, in view of the growing evidence that it was fiction rather than a real teenager's diary (see [[#Authorship|Authorship and veracity controversies]]).<ref name=oppenheimer /><ref name=white /><ref name="jamison">{{cite news|last=Jamison|first=Leslie|date=2014-05-27|title=What's the Best 'Bad Book You've Ever Read?|newspaper=The New York Times Book Review|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/books/review/whats-the-best-bad-book-youve-ever-read.html|url-status=live|access-date=2017-01-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140601002410/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/books/review/whats-the-best-bad-book-youve-ever-read.html|archive-date=2014-06-01}}</ref><ref name=adams /><ref name=valentine>{{cite news|author-last=Valentine |author-first=Jenny |author-link=Jenny Valentine |editor-last=Drabble |editor-first=Emily |date=2015-08-28 |title=Banned, Burned, or Simply Life Changing: What Are the Best Dangerous Books? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/aug/28/banned-burned-or-simply-life-changing-what-are-the-best-dangerous-books |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=2017-01-06 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151231175807/http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/aug/28/banned-burned-or-simply-life-changing-what-are-the-best-dangerous-books |archive-date=2015-12-31 }}</ref> Reviewing the book again for ''The New York Times'' in 1998, Marc Oppenheimer called it "poorly written", "laughably written", and "incredible", although some other writers have pointed to the material as being plausible or even appealing to young readers.<ref name=adams /> The portrayal of the diarist's drug use, progressing from unwittingly ingesting LSD to injecting [[amphetamine|speed]] within a few days, and making a similar quick transition from her first use of [[marijuana]] to [[heroin]], has been deemed unrealistic.<ref name=white /><ref name=goldberg /><ref name=cuseo>{{cite book |last=Cuseo |first=Allan A. |date=1992 |title=Homosexual Characters in YA Novels: A Literary Analysis 1969–1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Extln1Ju_WAC&pg=PA62 |location=Lanham, Maryland |publisher=Scarecrow Press, Inc. |pages=62–64 | isbn=9780810825376 }}</ref> The book has been criticized for equating homosexuality with "degradation", illness, sin, and guilt.<ref name=cuseo /> More recent analyses have expressed ethical concerns with the book's presentation of fiction to young readers as a true story.<ref name=nilsenreminiscing /><ref name=goldberg /><ref name=valentine /> Despite all these criticisms, the book is frequently called a young adult classic.<ref name=white /><ref name=beidler /><ref>{{cite news|author-last=Everson |author-first=Katie |date=2015-09-08 |title=Why I've Written a Book for Teenagers About Taking Drugs |url=https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/sep/08/teenage-drugs-books-katie-everson |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=2017-01-07 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102234506/https://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/sep/08/teenage-drugs-books-katie-everson |archive-date=2017-01-02 }}</ref>