Exactly how steamy is this story?
R
When a diary entry begins with "another day, another blowjob" (165), we know we've got ourselves a pretty steamy read. The sex in this book isn't all that explicit—there aren't romance-novel-levels of detail—but it can be disturbing just the same.
During Alice's forays into society's underbelly as a hapless addict, she is periodically forced to offer sexual favors in exchange for her drugs of choice. Sometimes she does this willingly, like when she thinks she's in love with Richie, and sometimes it is purely a means to an end—namely, drugs.
Like the drug use in the book, the theme of sexual promiscuity is prevalent because the authors intended it to serve as a cautionary tale. They wanted the reader to be anxious alongside Alice each time she panicked about possibly being pregnant, and they wanted Alice's actions, as well as people like the poor pregnant addict in the park, to serve as a warning: Do drugs, gentle readers, and this could be you.
The authors also associate drug use with sexual "deviancy"—Ted and Richie's homosexual love affair, Babbie the baby prostitute, and Doris's unfortunate run-in with a sadist are all supposed to be lessons: If you do drugs this is what will happen to you. Laying it on a bit thick? Yup, we think so, too.