Go Ask Alice is a controversial 1971 book about the life of a troubled teenage girl that is considered a classic of American young adult literature. The book purports to be the actual diary of an anonymous teenage girl who died of a drug overdose in the late 1960s and is therefore presented as a testimony against drug use. Alice is not the protagonist's name; the actual diarist's name is never given in the book. A girl named Alice is mentioned briefly in one entry during the diarist's stay in Denver; she is a fellow addict the diarist meets on the street. Despite this, some commentators refer to the diarist as "Alice" in error or for the sake of convenience.