If You Liked Go Ask Alice, Try These:
Burgess, Melvin. Smack. 1999.
Like so many teenagers, Tar and Gemma are fed up with their parents. Tar's family is alcoholic and abusive, and Gemma feels her home life is cramped by too many restrictions. The young, British couple runs away to Bristol in search of freedom, and finds it in the form of a "squat." This vacant building is also occupied by two slightly older teens who share everything with Tar and Gemma (including their heroin habits). For a while, everything is parties and adventures, but slowly Tar and Gemma find themselves growing more and more dependent on the drug--whose strict mandates are even less forgiving than those of the parents they fled. As Gemma says, "You take more and more, and more often. Then you get sick of it and give up for a few days. And that's the really nasty thing because then, when you're clean, that's when it works so well." (Amazon).
Chbosky, Stephen. The Perks of Being a Wallflower. 1999.
Charlie is a freshman. And while's he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. He's a wallflower--shy and introspective, and intelligent beyond his years, if not very savvy in the social arts. We learn about Charlie through the letters he writes to someone of undisclosed name, age, and gender, a stylistic technique that adds to the heart-wrenching earnestness saturating this teen's story. Charlie encounters the same struggles that many kids face in high school--how to make friends, the intensity of a crush, family tensions, a first relationship, exploring sexuality, experimenting with drugs--but he must also deal with his best friend's recent suicide. Charlie's letters take on the intimate feel of a journal as he shares his day-to-day thoughts and feelings. (Amazon).
Grant, Cynthia. The White Horse. 1999.
A teenager records her thoughts in a diary she shares with her English teachers, revealing that she is pregnant, and that the father, her ex-boyfriend, has recently died of a drug overdose.
Greene, Shep The Boy Who Drank Too Much
A boy’s friends try to stop him from ruining his life with alcohol.
Greenberg, Joanne I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
Chronicles the three-year battle of a mentally ill, but perceptive, teenage girl against a world of her own creation, emphasizing her relationship with the doctor who helped her help herself.
Haddix, Margaret Peterson Don’t You Dare Read This, Mrs. Dumphrey
When her English teacher, Mrs. Dunphrey, announces that she will require everyone to keep a journal, Tish Bonner sighs and fidgets. She's one of those girls with big hair who sits in the back of the classroom, giggling and passing notes to friends instead of paying attention. Frankly, school is a waste of time for Tish. She would rather be working to help support herself and her younger brother. (Goodness knows her mother never lifts a finger to help them.) Mrs. Dunphrey says that she won't read any student's entry marked "DO NOT READ." Should Tish believe her? Much to Tish's surprise, journal writing becomes a welcome--yet frightening--outlet for the increasing stress she feels about life at home. Should she write about everything she's feeling? Will Mrs. Dunphrey really respect her privacy?
Neufield, John Lisa, Bright and Dark
Lisa Shilling is 16, smart, attractive--and she is losing her mind. Some days are "light," and everything is normal; during her "dark" days, she hides deep within herself, and nothing can reach her. Her teachers ignore what is happening. Her parents deny it. Lisa's friends are the only ones who are listening--and they walk with her where adults fear to tread
Oates, Joyce Carol Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang
Five teenage girls from upstate New York in the 1950s form a blood sisterhood to protect one another against the world and its oppressors, until their leader's disastrous act of revenge puts all their lives in turmoil.
Pennebaker, Ruth Don’t Think Twice
Set in the late 1960s, in a rural Texas home for pregnant teens, this is much more than a "girls in trouble" story. The entertaining, fully realized cast of characters believably runs the gamut, including a frizzy-haired, caftan-wearing California "hippie," a 12-year-old who was raped by her father, a coldly calculating sorority girl from Mississippi, and Anne, the intelligent, acerbic 18-year-old narrator. Though Anne's wholly dysfunctional family (workaholic lawyer-father, manic-depressive mother, and airhead sister) offer her no support, she slowly builds friendships among the wildly disparate group of girls at the home.
Sapphire Push
Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect. That is the device deployed in the first novel by poet and singer Sapphire. "Sometimes I wish I was not alive," Precious says. "But I don't know how to die. Ain' no plug to pull out. 'N no matter how bad I feel my heart don't stop beating and my eyes open in the morning." An intense story of adversity and the mechanisms to cope with it.
Sparks, Beatrice Almost Lost: The True Story of an Anonymous Teenager’s Life on the Streets
The true story of a suicidally depressed teenage boy discusses the events that led to his leaving home, his attempts to survive on the streets, his desperation to escape a brutal gang, and his fight with self-hatred.
Sparks, Beatrice Annie’s Baby: The Diary of an Anonymous, Pregnant Teenager From the author of "Go Ask Alice" and "It Happened to Nancy" comes this gripping narrative about a pregnant teenager who chronicles her experience in her diary. Fourteen-years-old and pregnant, Annie confides all her doubts and fears in her diary, revealing her deepest feeling from the time she learns she is pregnant until the time she must face the agonizing decision of whether to keep her baby or give the newborn up for adoption.
Sparks, Beatrice It Happened to Nancy
Fourteen-year-old Nancy, an asthmatic, meets 18-year-old Collin, a gentle, caring young man who appears to be the answer to her dreams--until he rapes her, leaving her HIV-infected. In spite of her rapid decline, explained in a note at the beginning of the book, as the result of her weakened immune system, Nancy leads a full, poignantly happy life because of the loving support of both friends and family.
Sparks, Beatrice Jay’s Journal
Lisa Shilling is 16, smart, attractive--and she is losing her mind. Some days are "light," and everything is normal; during her "dark" days, she hides deep within herself, and nothing can reach her. Her teachers ignore what is happening. Her parents deny it. Lisa's friends are the only ones who are listening--and they walk with her where adults fear to tread.
Stoehr, Shelley Crosses
A raw story of a teenager who tries to ease her emotional turmoil with self-mutilation. Nancy's adolescent rebellion has gone beyond wildly punk dress, foul language, and contempt for her drunken parents; she's taken to secretly cutting herself with pieces of broken glass. She also drinks and, after meeting kindred spirit Katie, her substance abuse escalates to weed, ups, mescaline, hashish, aspirin, or anything that can be swallowed or sniffed. The two explore the limits of what they can get away with…
Thomas, Rob Rats Saw God
In order to pass English class and graduate, 18-year-old Steve York has to write a 100- page essay about his life. What sounds like a run-of-the-mill writing assignment, however, becomes an excuse for Steve to reflect on the last four years (from Texas freshman to California senior), and figure out where it all went wrong. Maybe it was when he discovered that he really couldn't relate to his father, the Famous Astronaut. Or it could be because his "heart had been run through frappé, puree, and liquefy on a love blender" by his ex-girlfriend, Wanda "Dub" Varner. No matter where the finger of blame ends up pointing, it's a wild ride of self-enlightenment as Steve discovers that not all relationships are permanent, and that some--like the one with his dad--can be mended with a little work.
Voigt, Cynthia When She Hollers
Award-winning author Cynthia Voigt leaps into new territory with this bold novel--spanning one single, solitary day. It's the day that Tish decides that her stepfather will never touch her again. Voigt takes us nside Tish's terror and courage as she threatens her stepfather with a knife over breakfast and then makes her way to school. Calm and collected on the outside, Tish is bursting inside with fear and rage. How will she ever make it through the day? And what will happen when she gets home from school that day?