The Diary That Lied: A Wild Story of Deception and Cultural Panic 

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I read Go Ask Alice when I was in my early teens and it scared the living daylights out of me. When I read Unmask Aliceand learned that it was all a hoax, I was angry. Rick Emerson pulls back the curtain on how Go Ask Alice exploded in 1971, reshaping the young adult genre with its brutal depiction of sex, psychosis, and teenage self-destruction. Marketed as the real diary of a middle-class addict, the book terrified parents, hardened LSD’s reputation, and helped fuel the momentum of the War on Drugs.

Here’s the kicker: it was all the invention of author Beatrice Sparks, a serial con artist who turned tragedy into profit. Emerson paints a jaw-dropping picture of how Sparks betrayed a grieving family, stole a dead boy’s story for a second “true diary,” and even lied her way into recognition at the National Book Awards. Nearly six million copies later, Go Ask Alice still provokes debate—banned, adored, and defended on the myth that it was true.

The book does get a little dense in its investigative detail, but Emerson’s research is gripping and often outrageous. Unmask Alice reveals how easily fear and deception can shape a cultural moment—and how eagerly we bought the lie.