Book Review:Unmask Alice

Unmask Alice

LSD, Satanic Panic, and the Imposter Behind the World’s Most Notorious Diaries

by Rick Emerson

Pub Date 07 Jun 2022 |

BenBella Books

Biographies & Memoirs | History | True Crime

I am reviewing a copy of Unmask. Alice through BenBella Books and Netgalley:

If you were a teen in the 1970’s, 1980’s or 1990’s you likely read either Go Ask Alice, (First Published in 1971) or Jay’s Journal (First published in 1979). 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…