After finishing Unmask Alice, I am in shock.
In this book, Rick Emerson gives a detailed account of the history behind what would now be considered a “viral” novel, Go Ask Alice. For those who are unfamiliar with this book, it was initially published as the absolutely true diary of a real-life, troubled teen. The diary chronicles the teenager’s experimentation with drugs, sex, addiction, homelessness, etc., until the young woman passes away. Published in 1971, this was seen as an incredible story that every parent and child should read to ensure that they stay away from drugs. While some people initially doubted the authenticity of the diary, it would be a long time before anyone really questioned its (or the author’s) credibility. This is the journey Emerson discusses in Unmask Alice, how this novel (and Beatrice Sparks’ other novels) were once considered true fact, but turned out to be poorly-imagined and even predatory fiction.
Having been born in 1998, I’ve grown up in the age of the internet. I can remember a time where cellphones and social media weren’t as prevalent as they are now, but I can’t remember a time entirely without them. I also can’t remember a time without Google (although I can remember when it was much, much less efficient). Because of this, reading how well author Beatrice Sparks conned millions of people world-wide with books like Go Ask Alice and Jay’s Journal is almost incomprehensible.
Today, one can quickly google search someone else’s credentials. It would have been all too easy to see that Beatrice Sparks was not, in fact, a licensed psychologist in any state (as she claimed). It would have been easy to fact-check the material in her supposed “diaries”, seeing which timelines simply didn’t add up. It would have been easy to see that her own stories about herself, where she attended school, and how she made so many connections with these troubled teens were just patently false.
Unfortunately, in the 1970s, this was next to impossible. It wasn’t until Rick Emerson started researching Sparks’ history in 2015 (using our beloved Internet) that he was able to put this information together and give us a detailed, gripping piece of investigative journalism with Unmask Alice: LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World’s Most Notorious Diaries.
As I said, I was born in 1998, so I came into the picture over two decades after Go Ask Alice was originally published. I’ve never read the book, nor have I read any of Sparks’ other works, but even decades after the book was published I’d heard of the lore and controversy. By the time I’d heard of it, the book was spoken about as something that was almost certainly untrue. However, when it was published, Go Ask Alice was taken as fact. There are still people today who think it’s a true story, mainly because they read it when they were younger and haven’t looked into it since. That’s how widespread this book was, and how well Sparks (and the publishers) marketed it as a true diary.
Emerson counters this belief by chronicling Sparks’ personal history and uncovering what little truth hides inside these diaries. His style is snarky at times, and the reader can tell he holds a high amount of disdain for Sparks herself. After finishing the book, I can’t say I disagree with him. It is clear that even if Sparks intention was to raise awareness of certain issues among teenagers, she did so in a predatory way that hurt other teens and families in the process.
This is especially clear with her novel, Jay’s Journal. Emerson spends an entire section of his book discussing Alden Barrett’s (the real “Jay”) life in order to show how what Sparks wrote wasn’t only untrue, but a complete defamation of his character. This book was based on a true diary, Alden’s diary, but she only used twelve of his entries. The other two hundred (!) entries in the book were entirely fabricated by her. She twisted the story from a boy who suffered severe mental illness into a story about a boy who falls into occult practices and loses himself to Satan.
Yes, that’s really what this “true” story is about.
Again, in today’s day and age it’s incredibly difficult to imagine that someone could read something like Jay’s Journal and think that it’s in any way a true story. However, Sparks capitalized on the rise of the satanic panic, so this book was taken very literally at the time. She completely slandered this boy’s real, heartbreaking story in order to add to the hysteria.
Emerson also discusses the satanic panic, how it infiltrated small communities, and the most likely people to be affected by it. It’s a really fascinating breakdown, and it’s so interesting to see how this situation evolved as someone who wasn’t around to experience it (or even the aftereffects). One point he makes is that people were so unwilling to believe that the problem could be with their children (or their culture) that they believed it was literal Satan. Rather than raise awareness for mental illness, increase drug treatment programs, and lessen kids’ access to guns, they blamed the devil. We’re still using scapegoats like this today, so it was fascinating (and sad) to read about these circumstances forty years ago.
The author delves into how Sparks’ books played into these issues and paralleled whatever crisis teens were going through. Go Ask Alice was published after the wave of drug usage in the 60s, Jay’s Journal was published with the rise of the satanic panic, and It Happened to Nancy was published during the height of the AIDS crisis. In the latter novel, Nancy is a young teen who contracts AIDS after being date-raped. She chronicles her illness in a diary, and at the end of this diary, her hero Beatrice Sparks shows up to tell her she will publish her story to make sure other teenagers don’t fall victim to AIDS the way Nancy did.
Yes, Beatrice Sparks did eventually insert herself into her own writing in the most fanfiction way possible. Emerson is delightfully snarky about this in particular. It is abundantly clear that Sparks was more concerned with making a name for herself and participating in fearmongering than actually raising awareness about teenage issues. Emerson covers this all in his book, and I couldn’t recommend checking it out for yourself more.
I read this book in under two days because I was completely entranced by the story behind these novels that, at one point, did seem to help people. A lot of people cite Go Ask Alice as the reason they sought treatment for drugs or stayed away from them altogether. Not to mention, even though it’s a fabricated story, there are teenagers who have had similar experiences. I think this part of the reason why no one wanted to doubt its authenticity for so long. Finding out it’s not a real diary turns a heartbreaking story into a twisted hoax, and some people who initially related to it may now feel cheated and lied to.
It becomes obvious when Sparks continues to publish journals and diaries that she’s either making them up herself, or she’s an extremely predatory counselor. After the first few books, it becomes difficult to understand how these kept being published as true stories. There were so many discrepancies, and common sense alone tells us that something is extremely fishy when someone keeps publishing the same “true” story. Then, you remember that there was a lot of money to be made from these books.
Emerson claims that Sparks essentially popularized the YA genre. Adults ate up her books because they wanted to know what teenagers were doing behind their backs, and teenagers read her books because they wanted someone to relate to. Go Ask Alice has sold over four million copies worldwide, and the sales are still coming in even with the truth behind the book exposed. With this in mind, it becomes easier to see why people kept turning a blind eye to Sparks credentials, backstory, and subpar writing style.
Emerson points all of this out in his book, and goes into some interactions between Sparks and editors/publishers to show how she continually conned them. He makes the point that she consistently maintained that these were true stories, and she often had a way to explain the inconsistences (her favorite being that she had combined the diaries of multiple teenagers, which is why timelines didn’t always add up). She even falsified quotes and recommendations from other (made up) doctors and counselors. Plus, it’s easy to be conned when you want something to be true (especially if money is involved).
Overall, I thought Unmask Alice was an extraordinary deep-dive into a controversial author that conned the world. I had no idea how far this rabbit hole went, and I was amazed that Emerson put as much time and effort into unraveling this story as he did. Not only is it a feat of research, but the book itself is engaging throughout. I was captivated, and I’m so glad I picked up this book instead of a Sparks’ original. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is curious about the origins of Beatrice Sparks and her novels, or to anyone who loves a good deep-dive conman story. This is one of the best.
The Lit Wiz