Though this wasn't Alice's diary... it showed people in a simplistic way that this sort of thing can happen; usually doesn't however, but nevertheless these situations can happen and having heard first hand accounts of these sort of situations really can happening when people are spiraling down to rock bottom from drug addiction. It had opened my eyes as a young teenager to the possibilities of what can happen when someone is using hard drugs. I have also heard of people using hard drugs for a short period of their life and haven't had anything close happen to them then what had happened to the character Alice. I have not read this as an adult... so, my opinion of this book might change some, but as it holds now I believe this is a great book for young readers.