Gone To The Crazies

As a child, Alison Weaver’s life shone with surface-level perfection-full of nannies, private schools, and ballet lessons. She had all the luxuries of a wealthy Manhattan upbringing. But her childhood memories were laced with darker undertones: Her father was emotionally absent and her mother was a beautiful, aloof alcoholic. Neither parent approved of their daughter’s outbursts and emotions – and in the midst of her parents’ own flaws, Weaver was constantly reminded that she was a mess that needed fixing. By the time she was a teenager, Weaver had found escape in alcohol, marijuana, and late night abandon. But when her exasperated parents had her shipped away – in handcuffs – to the cultish Cascade School, everything changed. Within the surreal isolation of the school’s mountain campus, she left her old self behind, warping into a brainwashed model of Cascade’s mottos and ideals. Graduation two years later left her unprepared for the harshness of the real world – and she soon fell back into a mind-numbing wash of drugs.
Stumbling into freefall in New York’s East Village in the 1990s, Weaver’s life began a downward spiral marked by needles and late-night parties, mingled with fears of HIV and death. Ultimately, faced with the reality of her rapidly escalating self-destruction, Weaver was forced to face her inner darkness head on.

Author Biography

Alison Weaver is copublisher of the literary journal H.O.W., the proceeds of which go to needy orphans worldwide. Her work has appeared in Small Spiral Notebook, Opium magazine, Red China, and the Fifth Street Review.