Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World's Most Notorious Diaries

By Rick Emerson

"Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson goes a long way to showing what investigative journalism could be in the right hands . . . this book is undeniably buzzworthy." --Portland Book Review

"An absorbing and unnerving read . . . this book demands to be finished in one sitting." --Booklist

Two teens. Two diaries. Two social panics. One incredible fraud.

In 1971, Go Ask Alice reinvented the young adult genre with a blistering portrayal of sex, psychosis, and teenage self-destruction. The supposed diary of a middle-class addict, Go Ask Alice terrified adults and cemented LSD's fearsome reputation, fueling support for the War on Drugs. Five million copies later, Go Ask Alice remains a divisive bestseller, outraging censors and earning new fans, all of them drawn by the book's mythic premise: A Real Diary, by Anonymous.

But Alice was only the beginning.

In 1979, another diary rattled the culture, setting the stage for a national meltdown. The posthumous memoir of an alleged teenage Satanist, Jay's Journal merged with a frightening new crisis--adolescent suicide--to create a literal witch hunt, shattering countless lives and poisoning whole communities.

In reality, Go Ask Alice and Jay's Journal came from the same dark place: Beatrice Sparks, a serial con artist who betrayed a grieving family, stole a dead boy's memory, and lied her way to the National Book Awards.

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.

Unmask Alice . . . where truth is stranger than nonfiction.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1637740425
• ISBN13: 9781637740422
• Release Date: July 2022
• Publisher: Benbella Books
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.9" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Riveting

This book had such a chokehold on me. When I wasn’t reading this book, I was counting the minutes until I could get back to it. I was going to be cutesy and use a direct quote from the book but of course now I can’t find it. If you like twists and turns then this is the book for you. Life is honestly and truly stranger than fiction. I know I rated this five stars but I have to call out how weird it is the author didn’t cite sources after spending 350 pages dragging BS (truer initials have never existed btw) for basically doing the same thing? I trust research was done but it’s imperative to cite your sources, especially when deconstructing someone’s literary career. You already did the work, it should be no problem to prove it. Like, I don't get it, was the point to have your sources be "Just trust me, bro" as some sort of jab at Beatrice Sparks? (Not defending Beatrice, don't get it twisted. I'm just confused about why sources aren't cited at the end of the book.)