Emerson wrote a great piece of nonfiction that acts as a history of the war on drugs, a biography of Beatrice Sparks, a literary review of her works, and the tragic story of a teen. I was riveted by this book and it was all I could think about when I wasn't reading it. I had never read Go Ask Alice, but was generally familiar with the Satanic Panic and many of the related aspects of the panic and the war on drugs that Emerson touched on. This book gave me so much more insight into that time period and how Go Ask Alice played into it. Beatrice Sparks was a complex figure and Emerson does a good job of humanizing her while holding her to account for all of her lies and the harm she created. Emerson spends the majority of the middle of the book telling the story of Alden Barrett, whose family Sparks took advantage of. I was shocked at the aftermath of the story and very grateful for the empathetic manner in which Emerson told it. This book was an enlightening view into some of the causes of the Satanic Panic and the woman who remained unknown while her books were read by millions.
Thank you to NetGalley and BenBella Books for a copy of this fantastic work.

Not being of the generation that had to endure the original diaries and the deceit behind them; I found this book to be insanely interesting.

When I was about 12 or so, Go Ask Alice was considered a reading rite of passage.  Much like Flowers in the Attic or any of Judy Blume's adult novels, copies of Alice were passed around between friends with whispered warnings not to get caught reading it, don't let your parents confiscate it.  It was the book to read, a teenager's diary full of drugs, sex, and other taboos that the average kid in the early 1980's didn't normally get a chance to read about...and it was all true!!  Wasn't it??

In his upcoming release Unmask Alice, Rick Emerson explores the wild popularity of 1971's Go Ask Alice and introduces us to the woman behind the book, Beatrice Sparks. I don't know whether to describe Sparks as a con artist, delusional, or just hell-bent on finding fame at any cost (maybe a combination of all three),  but the lengths this woman went to in order to achieve success is truly mind-boggling, to the point of ruining a well-meaning family who made the mistake of trusting her to tell the truth about their child.

The domino effects of not only Alice but another "true" diary put forward by Sparks, Jay's Journal, are also examined by Emerson.  The rise of the Satanic Panic era in the 80's and early 90's can largely be attributed to her publication of Jay's Journal and her insistence that it was a real teen and his actual diary.  Emerson touches on some of the ripples brought on by the panic, including the vilification of the board game, Dungeons and Dragons, the rise of "false memory" accusations, and suicide (Please note that suicide is major theme throughout the book.  Proceed with caution if this is a trigger for you).

It's important to mention that the narrative can seem like it's all over the place.  More than once I wondered where a certain side story was headed and why all the attention to certain details that didn't seem relevant.  Be patient and stick with it, it really does all come together in ways you may not see coming.

Overall, I thought this was a fascinating and thought-provoking read.  There were a few things that I felt were either not needed or not explained fully, but hopefully they will be fixed in the final edit.  Highly recommend.

3.5 stars

I had never heard of the book Go Ask Alice before, so I don't share the same experience as so many others who feel, understandably, personally wronged by the whole thing.

I picked this book up just out of curiosity. It's extremely well written and researched, I really did learn a lot. Although a little long-winded in parts where I found my engagement ebbing, overall an interesting story.

As a reader of a "certain age" who grew up filled with the horror stories from the original "Go Ask Alice", "Unmask Alice" was like ripping off a band-aid. I felt deceived and used by the author of "Go Ask Alice" once it was revealed the "diary" was fabricated for profit and horrified (but sadly, not surprised) at the lies people will tell and how cruel humans can be to each other if it means turning a buck. Eye-opening.

I found this to be super interesting! I always loved the book Go Ask Alice and finding out it was written by an adult it just mind boggling! I reread go ask Alice after reading this and it definitely read different this time around.

An absolutely fantastic non-fiction expose that reads like a thriller... or the very best documentary series you've ever seen. Unmask Alice picks apart the deception and motivations behind several key texts of the 70s War on Drugs and the 80s Satanic Panic, to reveal no grand conspiracy of Satanists or predatory drug-pushers, but a deeply sad small-town tapestry of misfits, troubled teens and outcasts searching for belonging. I absolutely inhaled this book.

Unmask Alice is an interesting expose. Written in the same fashion as a true crime novel, Emerson brings us into what could potentially be the epicenter of the satanic panic. Emerson intwines facts with descriptive flourish.
Emerson presents an honest portrait into Beatrice Sparks and her motives. Was Beatrice Sparks no more than a fame hungry housewife? DId she take advantage of a griefstricken family to take the spotlight?

I actually found I really liked this book. After the first 50 pages, I couldn't put it down. I read Go Ask Alice, as well as others like Kim, Empty Inside as a teen. It's bananas to think that they're fraudulent books created by an even more fraudulent person. This woman ruined people's lives, and almost single-handedly created Satanic Panic. (I always think about the convicted men in the West Memphis Three. So sad - and to think, her actions helped lead to that.)

I liked the author's conversational style, and the book made me feel a whole lot of rage for Sparks.

2 Stars. I wanted to love this. It talks about the Go Ask Alice craze and how the “anonymous” author was actually an awful person pretending to be something and someone she was not. It’s talks about her second book/teen and crazy religious fanatics with their fear of Satanism.
I almost DNF. I even skipped a few paragraphs here and there that were pointless to the story. The idea was great and a third of the book was fantastic, but it should have ended there. This did not need to be a 300 page book. A multi-page magazine article or scientific journal entry, sure, but a full-length book? No. The side notes got snarky and made him not only lose his credibility, but my respect as a non-fiction author. As if he had a personal vendetta against Sparks, he portrayed her and thus himself, in bias light.
I am glad it is in the editing stage, as I hope they can skim some pieces out to remove some fluff. I say this, because It seemed like the author/book wanted to focus on just the Sparks book. Unfortunately, they must have had to fill up more pages so they added in additional “similar diary” works that were never really popular, and things that did not really fit/or were not really necessary in certain sections. I’ll end with Sparks sounded like an awful person; there’s no denying that. Same goes for Nixon and his War on Drugs. A little more organization so it does not go back and forth so much, and it could be a great book.
I’m really sorry to be so harsh.

This became an unexpected must read.

Growing up in a strict household hiding “inappropriate” books under covers, behind drawers and deep inside my backpack. I was wild eyed, getting lost in the pages of a drug addicted, sex crazed teenage girls diary- Go Ask Alice. This book blew my mind and has forever stayed with me.
Unmask Alice, throws me back into my childhood guilty pleasure and completely shatters the illusion of the memories Go Ask Alice ingrained in me, as a young, naive preteen!

Interesting content. Never read either book. It was before my time. It was wild to see how these books were marketed as true when they were all lies. I thought this could have been more concise and edited. But shoutout for saying the west Memphis three are innocent because they are.

Unmask Alice was an absolutely fascinating read! I was unfamiliar with the life and career of Beatrice Sparks who was the adult writer behind a number of fake diaries of teens. It's been years since I read "Go Ask Alice," and I had no idea that it was a sham, let alone that the writer had put more fake accounts out there! I recommend this read to anyone interested in the memoir, biography, or YA reads!

Read the original when I started high school. The is was a good and interesting follow up. Gave a little peak behind the curtain.

This book was good, I’m glad I got to read it early and can’t wait to tell others about it .
I think they are gonna enjoy it just as much
Thank you

I was a not a fan of this one. I think this would be a better read for another person. I would not recommend this title to those that I know.

I started this book thinking "Yes! I love stories of literary fraud!", but this was no J.T. LeRoy or Misha and the Wolves.

Never have I ever wanted so badly to point my finger in the face of a dead woman and yell at her. That the literary success of Beatrice Sparks is built on lies, manipulation, and exploitation, without being widely known by her readers is terrible. Sparks passed away before cancel culture and people having to answer for their claims, then again her legacy still continues on.

I knew vaguely that 'Go Ask Alice ' was written by some woman who claimed it was a real diary. Working at libraries, we always shelved it in the fiction section. I did not know however, that Beatrice Sparks is one of the worst types of human beings to have existed on this earth. To profit off the REAL pain and trauma that other people experienced is just deplorable.

The author's negative opinion of Sparks colors the entire text with vitriol and cynicism, but that's not unwarranted, and I found myself in the same bitter camp. Although with the caveat that I grew up non Mormon in a huge LDS community, so I come from a place of bitterness with the way that culture of people are. Though I do have some truly great LDS friends and family. That being said I do wish there was less editorializing of what Sparks' inner monologues must have been during key points in her career.

Knowing now that her background is LDS and of money, I now know why her writing is the way it is. It's like Mormon Housewife fanfiction of what she thought drugs and the occult we're like.

This book took me awhile to read, not because I wasn't engaged, but because the subject matter hit really close to home. Alden's emotional instability and intelligence reminded me so much of my brother, I just desperately wanted to give him the help he needed. It was hard reading and knowing where the story was going to go. Knowing that he wasn't going to make it, and that his memory wouldn't be honored respectfully was extremely difficult.

I can't even begin to voice all of my feelings about the Satanic Panic. Even I remember when I was little the grumblings of "Pokemon being demonic" and "Proctor and Gamble practicing satanic cult sacrifice". Now playing D&D with my friends just makes my heart ache for the early generations of players. When I think about what changed, it's really just the focus of ultra conservative groups. 2001 switched the focus from the devil and demons, to extremist groups, and labeling immigrants as the enemy. Unfortunately people will still believe what most aligns with their pre existing feelings, instead of the truth.

He blazed through it but I'm glad the author includes stories of wrongful convictions and cases that hedged on the Satanic angle. Dan and Fran Keller, the West Memphis just to name two of the most famous cases.

The author leaves with a note about not feeling the need to list citations for everything, but I honestly wish he had. Wouldn't that be the best way to throw it in the face of "DR. Beatrice Sparks PhD", to actually have a traceable account of everything? He lists his reasoning, but there's part of me that fears some of his information could also be just made up. Though
Emerson does take time to address that, leaving it up to the reader to decide.

This book had a huge impact on me, but a few of the author's choices with voicing Sparks' thoughts and not making a more comprehensive citation list loses a little for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Rick Emerson for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Rick Emerson takes a deep dive into the life and works of Beatrice Sparks, the true author of a bestselling string of "anonymous" young adult novels in diary form, most notably <em>Go Ask Alice</em>. Sparks was a compulsive liar who claimed to be a teen counselor with a PhD from either Brigham Young University or UCLA (her alleged alma mater varied), although in reality she only spent a few months in college. It is remarkable that she got away with as much as she did, considering that she had a hard time keeping her own stories straight.

Apart from <em>Alice</em>, Emerson devotes much space in his book to the story of Alden Barrett, a troubled young man whose diary (which Sparks embellished with scenes of witchcraft and demonic possession) became the basis of Spark's second young-adult novel, <em>Jay's Journal</em>. Sparks dealt callously and dishonorably with Alden's grieving family.

Emerson also explores related subjects such the conservative Utah-Mormon milieu that gave rise to Beatrice Sparks; television personality Art Linkletter's role in bringing about President Richard Nixon's "War on Drugs"; and the origins of the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s.

All in all, Emerson has written a well-researched, compulsively readable debunking of some of the most enduring myths of young adult literature.

I received an electronic pre-publication copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson.

INJECT THIS STORY DIRECTLY IN MY VEINS, I CANNOT GET ENOUGH.

I was honestly sad when this was over, and for a nonfiction book, that's saying something.

Did I read Go Ask Alice by Anonymous when I was younger? Um, am I a child of the 80's? Hell yeah I read it. And it was filled with all of the teen angst, drugs, depression etc that I could have asked for. It also did what the book was intended to do, scared me right off of drugs. I believe I've read it twice, it's a tough one to forget. Who is this mysterious young girl, and what really happened to her after the journal ends? And why was it labeled anonymous?

This takes not just a deep dive into that story, but a deep dive from all different angles. You're going to get into singular people in the 40's and 50's, satanic panic, The Nixon administration, the geneology of LSD, as well as how a small Mormon town in the 70's contributed to this book that has sold more copies than Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. It's written SO well, it's entertaining, informative and fascinating. I could not get enough, I loved every moment of this book.

Ask Alice was a bit before my time, but I had heard of it. The story beyond the story became much more interesting to me. When I was approved for this I put a hold on ask Alice hoping to read them in tandem, but the farther I delved into the story the less I wanted to read the original and eventually ended up canceling my hold. The backstory was fascinating tho. Very well written and fast paced this was an easy read that was engaging and interesting. Definitely recommend.