One of the breakout books of the YA genre was Go Ask Alice, the purported diary of a nameless teenage drug addict and runaway. However, the story behind that book and its follow-up, Jay’s Journal, is far more convoluted and amorally exploitative than anyone would expect.
I have actually read Go Ask Alice. I was interested in it because of the controversy surrounding its reality, and reading the protagonist’s wild dash through various illicit drugs made it pretty clear that it was indeed not real. The overblown writing and frantic plot rather made it a pain to read. But, as Emerson reveals in this book, Go Ask Alice was indeed an enormous hit, winning awards and selling millions of copies.
The story behind the book is far more fascinating though, I found. Emerson deftly weaves the tale of conservative America in the seventies and eighties into the story, creating a vivid backdrop to the hoax. The story has jaw-dropping twists and turns, and I spent a great deal of time astonished by Beatrice Sparks’s audacity and how she kept managing to get away with things. I also appreciated the emphasis on veracity that Emerson had in this book, which really is necessary after the murkiness of Go Ask Alice and the books that followed it.
However, I did think the section that centered on Jay’s Journal was a little overly long. We learn a lot about the real and tragic life of Alden Barrett, whose actual diary Sparks perverted for publication, and Emerson does not pull any punches in exploring Alden’s story. Unfortunately I thought the book would have worked a bit better if he had! It’s a slightly odd change of pace to be pulled out of the main story for so long, waiting to be braided back in.
Ultimately, a really interesting subject, and a well-written book.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.