“Unmask Alice is a riveting work of non-fiction that reads like a great thriller . . . It’s the perfect, terrifying tale for our age of group think, conspiracy theory, and flexible truths. Meticulously researched and brilliantly written, it’s simply one of the must-read books of this century.”
—Gillian Flynn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl
“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
“A dogged unearthing, and attempted undoing, of all the falsehoods that went into the production of [Go Ask] Alice.”
— Slate
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: 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.