by Anonymous

I read this Classic many years ago, but had forgotten most of it so tried a sample and it held my interest enough to pay the 1.99 Kindle price so I could keep going, though I hadn't yet got to the 'meat' of the story.

It's about an ordinary young girl in America who has a lot of insecurities about fitting in at school. She turns 15 early in the story and her family moves to another town. It's supposed to be a true story, but I'm not sure whether that's hype or not.

As it goes along, we read through her diary how she got lured into drug use and quickly goes down a familiar route of trying different substances and getting caught up with dodgy boyfriends. She makes a good friend and after a period of going down a slippery slope, they decide to run away to get away from the bad influences plaguing them. Where do they go? San Francisco!

A lot of the tie the diary entries sound too Pollyanna to be real, but they reflect her ups and downs, attempts to get away from drug culture and the pitfalls along the way. In the late 1960s, it was a hard hitting portrait of the culture of the time and the sorts of things that could happen to young teenage runaway girls, or even those who don't leave their families.

It is certainly dated, but I'm glad I read it again.