Unmask Alice for the Meddling Author She Was

When I grabbed a copy of Unmask Alice by Rick Emerson I didn't know what I was in for or how deep the rabbit hole could go. I had never read Go Ask Alice, but I remember a classmate who did a book report on it. The striking plain black cover accented with the author: Anonymous was enough to capture my imagination. While my classmate sold the book to us with the full conviction of a 16-year-old who actually did the reading for English class, something about it felt weird.

True stories are not often these neat little narratives that perfectly follow the rise and fall of a plot diagram. In fact, this was a lesson I remember hearing in that very class when we read The Things They Carried. What I heard from Alice was a perfect story, but somehow it was true. Of course, at the time I was a teen and did not particularly enjoy memoirs or non-fiction works. I quickly forgot about the book until I found a copy again. My curiosity was sparked again right up until the price tag convinced me otherwise. I suppose a random streak of frugalness saved me from falling down the wrong rabbit hole.

So why would I be so interested in the "true story behind Go Ask Alice" if I had never bothered to read it in the first place. Perhaps it was the promise of scandals and lies. Perhaps I was inclined to know the truth before committing to a story. Or maybe I just thought it would make for an interesting discussion. Either way I was sold, and in just a little over a week I had tore through the entirety of the book.

You have to be willing to follow the story out of course. There was one major focus shift in the book that I did not immediately see the connection for. Yet the story being told in that moment was so captivating I had to follow it through. And boy oh boy did it come right back around.

At the forefront of this story is The War on Drugs. All of us who went through a D.A.R.E. program already know a good chunk of what they could say, but to hear why they were saying it was interesting. A string of tragedies lead to just the right amount of people raising the alarm to set in motion a destructive political initiative. While this book is not solely focused on the politics of it all, it takes great care in establishing the political motive of their actions.

After we leave the political sphere we are met with the story of a woman Beatrice Sparks. We come to learn the struggles of this working class Mormon author who is desperate to be famous. A story of fame at any cost. Sparks is constantly given moments of almost fame, but it never comes to fruition. However Beatrice happens to have a manuscript in her posession that would catch the attention of all the right people. This would become what we know as Go Ask Alice. Yet we've always know that book to have an anonymus author and be a true story. Seeing the story unfold of what Go Ask Alice actually is can not be easily summarized here. Nor can its legacy that led to the publication of the harmful Jay's Journal and other works that stoked the flames of the eventual Satanic Panic of the '80s and '90s.

The book goes in sections from The larger political landscape, to Beatrice Sparks, to a boy we came to know as Jay, but his real name was Alden Barrett, to another who makes the story even more complicated. If there were one word to describe the events of this book it would be complicated. To fully summarize it would be a disservice to the work Emerson puts into carefully crafting a narrative for you to follow. All I can really say is go pick up a copy today.

Final Rating: 5/5 Stars. For being a fascinating read that kept me engaged with the facts and questioning the true meaning of truth. For being a read that appealed to me as someone who, at the time, read very little non-fiction. For putting the work into connecting the dots of a complicated and messy political story.

-Sincerely Raven