A Real Diary?

Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose edited by Gillian McClain and Legs McNeil

I bought this because a) it was inexpensive and b) it sounded like it might be like Go Ask Alice, which I liked. This one, I didn't like so much. Also, I won't be able to put it in my classroom--I would get phone calls from parents about why I have books that drop the F-bomb so much, discuss drug use like it's ok, and open sexual situations (even though not graphic).

I wanted to like this, I really did. Mary Rose made it hard. She's not a bad person, but she makes bad choices. When she started talking about her cystic fibrosis, it was hard to care, even though I wanted to, because up until then, she didn't seem to care about her life. If she didn't care, why should I?

The timeframe that this book encompasses is from1996 to 1999. She talks about her drinking and drug use like it's no big deal. Her biggest complaint, understandably, is that her mother would rather be with a jerk who abuses her and her kids than her kids. Mary Rose's mother was an alcoholic and drug user too, so it seemed hypocritical when she came down on Mary Rose for those things. Like, how was she supposed to know any better when her own mother was exposing her to those things? That's why her mother's afterword seemed fake.

This girl had cystic fibrosis, but her family never came to see her in the hospital. Her mom said it was because she had to work. Sorry, that doesn't work for me. I get it that she needed to make money to take care of her family, but when she wasn't working, she needed to be with her kid.

Mary Rose didn't have any real friends. They were only people to get drunk and high with, and when that wore off, she had no one. That was sad. Obviously, she had more to offer the world, but was never given the chance. And the multiple times she was raped? She should not have had to deal with that alone. All she really had was the journal she kept, and it was just depressing.

Was this a real journal? Hard to say. If it was real, then I am sad that Mary Rose didn't get the help or the love she really needed. I am sorry she had to deal with a disease, on her own, that took her life before she really got to live it. If it's not a real journal, I am not sure that it's going to have the impact on the masses that Alice, a fake journal purported to be real, did.

In short, I wish I hadn't wasted my time and money on this one.