"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
"One of the must-read books of this century."
—Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl
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,
terrified adults and cemented LSD's fearsome reputation, fueling support for the War on Drugs. Five million copies later,
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,
and
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.