A Teenage Perspective

I have given in to the geek in me (again) and joined a book club. We are a small yet enthusiastic group brought together by one common denominator, my friend Kate. (You can follow her blog here.)
We have met three times now and I love that our conversations are not necessarily firmly focussed on the book of the month, but that we also spontaneously stray into reliving and re-loving books we have read in the past.
At last week's session, which was supposedly discussing Room by Emma Donoghue, we got on to discussing a book that I remember having a profound impact on me as a teenager - Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (although Wikipedia tells me it was actually written by a Beatrice Sparks). With the click of an iPad it was located on Amazon and deposited into my digital library, and I read it with almost the same speed.
At the time of my first read many, many moons ago, this diarised journey of a teenager drawn into the world of drugs was almost a forbidden read, a shocking story with a devastating epilogue. As a teenager it took me into a world I am grateful to say I have still never been a part of (or ever will be).
As an adult I must admit that despite the content being just as abhorrent, it felt like quite a tame read. Maybe this is because it was told from a teenage perspective, for a teenage audience. Or maybe it's because it followed the reading and discussion of Room and the realism that it coincided with the horrors and escape of the three women in Cleveland. Or maybe there's just so much 'shocking stuff' that we hear, see and read about in today's adult world that we've become desensitized. Who knows. It was good to revisit an old friend, regardless.