Unmask Alice

"One of the must-read books of this century."—Gillian Flynn, #1

New York Times

bestselling author of

Gone Girl

"

Unmask Alice

by Rick Emerson 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

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.