steppenwolf is a poetical selfportrait of a man who felt himself to be halfhuman and halfwolf this faustlike and magical story is evidence of hesses searching philosophy and extraordinary sense of humanity as he tells of the humanization of a middleaged misanthrope yet his novel can also be seen as a plea for rigorous selfexamination and an indictment of the intellectual hypocrisy of the period as hesse himself remarked of all my books steppenwolf is the one that was more often and more violently misunderstood than any of the others it started when she was served a soft drink laced with lsd in a dangerous party game within months she was hooked trapped in a downward spiral that took her from her comfortable home and loving family to the mean streets of an unforgiving city it was a journey that would rob her of her innocence her youth and ultimately her life read her diary enter her world you will never forget her