i love learning about little niche moments in pop culture history. my only complaint was the author's decision not to cite any sources because it is "freely available on the internet"?? i just feel like if you were writing about a literary fraud who never provided concrete sources you would probably go out of your way to provide concrete sources, just because. i don't think he's lying, i just would expect more professionalism in a non-fiction work. (at one point, he says readers can fact check w a quick phone call if they chose to do so. but like, that's not my job?? that's your job?? i couldn't believe my ears lol)

a stain on an otherwise totally engrossing book. so engrossing that i still had to give it 4 stars.

Like so many people in my age bracket, I grew up with Go Ask Alice touted as a cautionary tale about the harms that drugs can do. This book was used to "keep me in line" and the reason why I wasn't allowed to do anything after school or on weekends. So you can imagine my absolute disgust when I read about the awful origins behind this book and the subsequent offerings from the same "anonymous" author.

This was an enjoyable read and, being non-US, I really appreciated the background that Emerson provided, especially around Art Linkletter, Ronald Regan, and the War on Drugs which helped to form the basis for Go Ask Alice. Sometimes the writing did come across as fairly informal, like having a bit of a chat which was quite jarring, but also my personal preference is for my non fiction to read like case studies! I would have also appreciated a few more sources or reading recommendations, especially as Beatrice Sparks (the anonymous author in question) did not leave her lies within the pages of her books and it's hard to tell what is truth and what is fiction when it comes to her life.

An interesting read for anyone who has ever read or been affected by Go Ask Alice.

I didn't finish this. I went into this book having different expectations, I realize, and I think that being only 31.5 years old has something to do with why I didn't enjoy or care for it. I found it difficult to keep reading it because it was boring and just...pretentious? It felt less like a memoir and more like a series of blog posts where the author shared his take on the topic with little facts.

You’ve probably read (or at least heard of) the 1970s sensation Go Ask Alice. The drug-laced, heavy teen book that’s a *true* diary account of a Midwest teenage girl’s life, written by Anonymous. What about Jay’s Journal? A similar story, the *true* diary of a depressed boy who winds up in some Satanic trouble. The thing about both of these books is that they weren’t exactly true, and the first one doesn’t even come close. They were fabricated by Beatrice Sparks, a lying, scheming Mormon housewife who had no shame in betraying a grieving family and desecrating the memory of their child.

This book had me shocked, seething, I just couldn’t believe the nerve of this lady! All I knew about Go Ask Alice was that it was supposedly true, there were drugs, and it was famously penned by “Anonymous”, an ominous and all-knowing author. *Someone* wrote it, a real person, but who is anyone’s guess. What I didn’t know was that the person behind both Go Ask Alice and Jay’s Journal was a lying, manipulative old bat with huevos the size of Utah. After finally finding a copy of Go Ask Alice at Goodwill I was prepared to jump into Unmask Alice.

Go Ask Alice itself wasn’t really all that great tbh. Maybe it seemed credible fifty years ago but today it read naive and unrealistic. And the language, yeesh. just another reminder that this book is as old as (and was written by) a grandma. The story of Jay’s Journal is even wilder, and the fact that it’s much closer to true than Alice ever could be just absolutely broke my heart! I couldn’t even bear to attempt to get my hands on it. What’s different about Jay is that he started out as a real person. His family trusted Beatrice Sparks and her “psychologist credentials” with the journal he left behind after taking his own life. They trusted her to publish his words to help other kids, and what did she do? She turned him into an orgy-having Satanist!

So at least now, finally in Unmask Alice, this awful predatory author is put to shame, and I can’t help but thank Satan for that. The book is a scathing indictment of Beatrice Sparks and all the lies she stood for. As the mask slides down, Unmask Alice feels like a little bit justice is finally being served. I absolutely loved every second of it. If you enjoy *true* juicy drama, gossip, and a dash of revenge then this book is the one for you.

Couldn’t finish. It was too pretentious and boring. Not something I would recommend. I read Go Ask Alice as a teenager, I learned quickly how it was false at the time. I wanted a different perspective but I just got a self-indulgent book.

I'm so glad that you brought this to light. I don't understand how this women got away with her lies for so long. Some of the facts would have been very easy to check; education, licenses, etc. I wish someone would shout it across the country, if not the world, so that folks don't continue to think anything this women said was accurate or even believable. Glad I only read one of hers. I wouldn't want to be part of supporting her trash.

First off, when the author's note tells you there are two kinds of people, ones who skip ahead to read the ending just to see what happens and ones that will follow the trail, no matter how it unfolds to the end, but challenges you to not look things up and just follow the path...the challenge is on in a very big way. Secondly, this book is a hard one to rate. I thought it was very well done, but it left me angry. Very angry and disgusted. Not at the author, at what I discovered within. Some things really are stranger than fiction, and this book takes you on a journey that really is quite unbelievable but oh so true. Starting off with LSD and it's accidental start, Beverly Sparks and her beginning, to the famous Go Ask Alice book, to Alden Barrett, to LSD and the war on drugs by Richard Nixon, to the satanic panic, to so many other things that are connected in a bizarre twist of truth that leaves you wanting to keep reading to find out the end of it all...and when you do...oh boy! I recommend it, but not because I love it, because it needs to be a warning for future individuals. Your choices do impact others.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

I waited to review this book for awhile because I know launching a book can be very series business. However, I wish the author had provided sources and spoken in a manner that befits the dressing down of a popular myth. When I requested this book to read before its launch, I was excited. I was hoping to bring into my high school library and recommend it to my high school teachers who teach contemporary novels. However, this is a book I cannot recommend in good faith. I enjoyed reading it, but I don't know how truthful it is.

I read Go Ask Alice a million times and grew up under the Satanic Panic shadow and I could not stop reading this book. What an amazing work of research and written with such style, too! I will not give spoilers but my jaw was on the floor. Would love to see this author do more media interviews! Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the e-galley.

Didn't really enjoy this book at all. I thought it would've gone into more detail about certain things and it was more opinionated than research.

Go Ask Alice was the book of my youth. It was the book of many peoples teen years. And it was all (mostly) fake.

In Unmask Alice, Rick Emerson dives into the origin story of not just the author of Alice but many other teen “true” diaries from the 70s,80s and 90s. How she took advantage of the climate and fears of each decade to find fame and money.

I highly recommend this to anyone that loved these “true” diaries growing up.

This book was so eye-opening! Most of us who grew up in the 70s and 80s had a heightened awareness of the "satanic panic" that seemed pervasive. Unmask Alice shows us the true story behind the very fake diaries that inspired this panic, and the woman who craved notoriety even if it meant hiding behind "anonymous" published works.

Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries is a true story of contagious deception. It stretches from Hollywood to Quantico, and passes through a tiny patch of Utah nicknamed "the fraud capital of America." It's the story of a doomed romance and a vengeful celebrity. Of a lazy press and a public mob. Of two suicidal teenagers, and their exploitation by a literary vampire.

I remember reading Go Ask Alice when I was younger and thought that it was so incredibly shocking and I was so captivated by it. Only later did I find out that it was a scam written by this woman Beatrice Sparks and I was so disappointed. The diary had felt so real and this was a fascinating story of the woman behind this fraud. I didn't know she also did the same thing with a book from a boy's point of view as well - and that was someone who was suicidal and that she exploited.

The real story is incredibly compelling and captivating and completely immersive. It definitely had more twists and turns that I imagined and really the best way to sum it up is that the truth is sometimes stranger than fiction! 5/5 stars for me. Please be mindful of trigger warnings.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for my free digital copy.

Could not get a handle on this piece. What is this about? Seems like a beat poem, as in beatnik, turned into prose. Could not get a handle on it. Sorry.

I really enjoyed this for what it was. I too was one of those teens that read the book 📕 and believed it all real. I saw the after school special. It all scared 😳 me so much. I never tried any drugs until I went to college. From a small town and church-going family I didn’t really have any interest. This was always in the back of my mind.

This was fascinating to read. Lots of nostalgia. LSD, Manson Murders, Nixon, Art Linkletter (I didn't remember his involvement) sadness; and I stopped and started a few times. Misunderstood kids. Suicide. I’m glad to have read it. It’s not really light reading so keep that in mind. There are triggers.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for a digital copy to read for review. I recommend it! It takes you back. Although I learned as an adult with everyone else that it was made up, I will never forget it.

I Really wanted to like this book. Even though I read it as adult, i was still entranced with Go Ask Alice, and all the controversy. For me, the book didn't live up to the tile.
Although I did learn one thing; i had no idea there was a Jay's Journal.

I read "Go Ask Alice" as a teen because my mother (who was 11 when the book was released) insisted it would keep me from doing drugs. Never mind that I never showed any interest in drugs, but it kept her clean, so by god, it would do the same for me. The book was, in the most literal sense, sensational. Even as a teen it didn't seem possible that one person could have such a treacherous life. Luckily, teen me was correct, because the book is utter fiction. After learning about how big a liar Beatrice Sparks is, I naturally read "Jay's Journal" and "It Happened to Nancy", which are, if anything, more sensational. So when I saw this book, I knew I had to read it. And I'm glad I did, but it doesn't mean it is without issues.

While I appreciate the author's humor and his unapologetic look at the works of Sparks, and I feel the context of the different eras in which her books were penned lend an air of legitimacy to the work, it just isn't particularly well written. It doesn't feel like an authoritative non-fiction treatise, it feels like some dude at a bar sitting and telling you about his incredibly niche Master's thesis that he keeps forgetting parts of and has to backtrack. The title alone should let you know how frenetic this story is. What begins as an exposé of Beatrice Sparks and her numerous lies dips into LSD and Nixon's war on drugs, a young man named Alden who takes a full 15% of the narrative, the Satanic Panic, the AIDS epidemic, Mormonism as a concept, publishing and its many hazards, and some girl named Tobi at a youth camp, among other small offshoots. Occasionally the author remembers this is a Sparks exposé and returns to the thesis, but the happenstance order of these divergences was honestly whiplash-inducing. Clean separations with boxes for the asides would have made this 100 times better. While I feel the information he shared was necessary to truly understand the context of Sparks' batshittery, it just was poorly arranged and even more poorly explained in parts.

I also appreciate the note he added at the end about why he didn't include citations, but also (as a librarian) really wish he would have included citations. Yes, most of this information is easily Googled for verification, but YOU as the author look a lot more credible when you take the time to do that legwork for your reader.

So in summary, it was a necessary book for people who still believe GAA, JJ, and the other Sparksian fictions (and they are complete fictions, after all) are the great treatise that will keep their kids from peddling illicit substances, selling themselves in the streets of San Francisco, contracting HIV and dying nearly immediately of AIDS, or drinking cows blood from a baby skull or whatever other madness she tried to kludge into truth. But it needed another editor or four to organize it in a sensible way and a bit more gravitas on the part of the author when discussing events that literally ruined peoples' lives. Also, you know, cite your Shit.

I love nonfiction books that read as thrillers! The book "Go Ask Alice" is an integral part of popular culture, presented as a cautionary tale about the dangers of drug addiction. The story rose in popularity as the diary of an anonymous fifteen year old girl spiraling into addiction and finally succumbing to an overdose. The reality is that Beatrice Sparks wrote "Go Ask Alice" and "Jay's Journal" to achieve professional success and notoriety. Rick Emerson does a great job presenting well-researched evidence to craft a spellbinding narrative explaining the damage done to families and society as a whole by these exploitative books. If you grew up during the War on Drugs or hearing tales of teenagers who were thought to be part of a satanic cult, this book is for you!

I clearly remember reading Go Ask Alice as an impressionable teen. When I saw this, I leapt at the chance to read it.
I never read any of Beatrice Sparks’ other books, but I’m very glad now, given Rick Emerson’s expose of her subterfuge and complete disregard for the truth and the cost to families.Her willingness to move her own profile forward at the cost of others is king of astounding.
As a 13 year old, I was unnerved by Alice and what she went through. Had I read it as an adult, I wonder now if I would have picked up the inaccuracies and falsifications that now seem obvious. Thanks Rick for pointing them out, and thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read the book.

When working in a high school library in the 2010's I was surprised at how many students were asking for "Go Ask Alice." I remember when my friends were reading this "true story" by a girl just like us. I appreciate all the background information and details included in the book. These books influenced many people and to know the story behind them is fascinating. A great read!