The Diarist (possibly "Alice")
Although the Diarist is never mentioned by name, the title suggests that she is called Alice. She is the protagonist of the book, which is in epistolatory form as a series of diary entries. At the beginning of the book, the Diarist is in her early to mid teens. She has parents and a younger brother and sister, but is upset and alienated following a move to a new city and the increasing distance between herself and her best friend. She falls in with an unpopular drug-using crowd and experiences her first LSD trip when someone gives her drugs at a party.
The story centers around the Diarist's descent into drug induced bad decision making. At different points in the story she tries to return to a normal life, but peer pressure and her alienation from her family pull her back into the drug lifestyle.
The Diarist's father
The Diarist's father is a university professor. Intelligent but not always in touch with his own children, he relocates the family to a new city in order to accept a new job as a dean (which is a promotion for him). He loves all of his children but does not know how to cope with his eldest daughter's behavior. Having her committed to a mental institution following an incident in which the Diarist is drugged by her former friends and goes on a "bad trip" almost saves her.
Beth
Beth is the Diarist's new best friend, whom she meets after moving to their new town. Her friendship is important to the Diarist. However when the summer starts Beth leaves for camp, and the Diarist gravitates toward another group of acquaintances. By the time Beth returns, the Diarist is a committed drug user who is helping herself to her grandfather's sleeping pills. She fancies herself far more intelligent, worldly, and spiritually sophisticated than Beth, who remains focused on more normal teen interests. As Beth gradually takes her life in a more mainstream direction, the girls grow apart.
Chris
A stereotypical "hippie" girl who is older than the Diarist, Chris befriends the Diarist and uses drugs with her. Chris and the Diarist "date" a pair of college boys who happen to be drug dealers. The boys use them to sell drugs at school. This, on the surface, would appear to be a big moral compromise for the Diarist, however by this point the Diarist is interested in having a regular source of drugs.
It is Chris who runs away with the Diarist to San Francisco, where Chris gets a job in a local retail store and both girls are victimized by the owner, Shelia (actual spelling) and Shelia's boyfriend, who introduce them to heroin and rape them. Afterwards, Chris and the Diarist open a jewelry shop in Berkeley but tire of the adventure and return home in time for Christmas.
Richie and Ted
These are a pair of college-aged drug dealers who are in a romantic relationship with one another. They feign interest in Chris and the Diarist in order to persuade the girls to sell drugs for them. As retaliation for their dishonesty, Chris and the Diarist report the young men to the police.
Doris
Doris is a young woman the Diarist meets after she runs away from home for the second time while high on drugs. She is the victim of childhood sexual abuse and turned to drugs and to the runaway life as a way to escape. She and the Diarist travel together to several cities. During this time, the Diarist learns from Doris how to prostitute herself to support her drug habit.
Babbie
Babbie is a young woman, younger than the Diarist, whom the Diarist meets while rehabilitating in the psychiatric hospital after the Diarist's former friends drug her into a "bad trip". Babbie too has been a drug addict and a child prostitute. She serves as a mirror in which the Diarist sees herself.
