Go Ask Alice was all LIES! LIES! LIES! And Jay’s Journal was too!

Well, the article also explains where this came from as well.

Ummmmm we already knew this. Besides, it's not really a "cult classic".

Another Linda Lavin thread??!?

OMG! Beatrice Sparks looks the epitome of a DL icon in her white fur coat, frizzy perm and trowelled on makeup!

“I’m fabulous!”

I remember "edgy" children's and young people's librarians being obsessed with this book back in the day.

R2, I agree we already knew this, but it is a cult classic.

Michelle remembers this book

Wasn't the success of the movie largely responsible for the book being a must-read?

r6 With it or the counter cult zine that was published 80s/90s for lgbt youth?

Who cares if it was lies? It's fiction.

R11 - it wasn't sold to us as fiction

So was Michelle Remembers!!!!

I devoured Unmask Alice. I recommend it highly.

Whatever Mormon Hell is like, I hope Beatrice Sparks is there.

Sounds like the author needs to go deeper.

LSD was supplied by the govt and Satanic Panic was manufactured by gov. Intelligence people in combo with law enforcement.

R8 i remember! That blazing true story!!

Big Ass wants the blow job before he'll give me the drugs.

“The girl’s a slut and has been giving out blowjobs.”

The podcast You're Wrong About does a deep dive on this and Michelle Remembers - both worth a listen.

Cindykathyjanemary. Damnit I was here just eight YEARS ago. What DID happen?

You're Wrong About did three episodes on Alice, and the author appears for the final one.

Definitely recommend as well.

One of my classmates did a scene from the high school theatrical adaptation of Go Ask Alice. It was Alice at a party, dancing wildly after smoking her first joint, and uttering the immortal line, "Snow White ate Bugs Bunny's carrots! Radio! Radio!"

Who cares if it's fake? In those days it was a great antidote to crap like "The Brady Bunch".

Paul F. Tompkins has a hilarious bit about the truth-claims of "Go Ask Alice."

[quote]The podcast You're Wrong About does a deep dive on this and Michelle Remembers - both worth a listen.

[quote]You're Wrong About did three episodes on Alice, and the author appears for the final one.

I listened to the first part of the Alice series on You’re Wrong About but the guest she had on discussing it with her was so annoying I don’t think I can listen to two more episodes even with the author of the exposé appearing for part 3. I generally enjoy the podcast and actually discovered it from the Michelle Remembers episodes which are worth listening to.

I was more into Lisa, Bright and Dark.

Was that fake too?

I thought Lisa B ASND D was marketed as a novel, hence fiction.

Ah, R27, I read it around age 12 so….didn’t get that. I thought it was true!

R14, what was the big reveal at the end of Unmasked Alice? Was it true, partly true or all a lie?

I’m 67 and of course Go Ask Alice left an imprint on my early life and choices.

Not many people remember this but the pot, coke, and psylicibe mushrooms back in the day were so different than what people are chasing now. Pot was innocuous, seedy, and so mellow. Coke had no fentanyl and was only a disappointment if it had baking soda. And you’d never die from anything except Marilyn Monroe pills which were not popular in the 70s/80s.

But that book and movie did allow me to make better choices. So glad to be out of that scene. And I’ve never watched The Brady Bunch.

Not sure what your point is OP.

R30? You're what we used to call "a square".

[quote] And you’d never die from anything except Marilyn Monroe pills which were not popular in the 70s/80s.

***cough, cough***

All you have to do is read Go Ask Alice with the slightest bit of common sense to know it's all lies.

Sad because Sparks was actually a pretty good writer. For some probably ridiculous Mormon reason she couldn't just be a good writer, she had to be a crusader peddling fake cautionary diaries.

"Later editions of the book contained the standard disclaimer: 'This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, places, characters, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.'"

^ And that is what I remember from when I read it in the 80’s. “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden” had a similar disclaimer, I believe. Even so, who cares if it did not have the disclaimer when it was released?

If only Edie Sedgwick had access to Go Ask Alice she might still be alive!

Jamie Smith-Jackson, who played Alice in the TV movie, also had a role in the "Lisa Bright and Dark" TV movie, which starred Miss Kay Lenz as Lisa, well supported by Debralee Scott, Erin Moran, AND Anson Williams. Smith-Jackson was married to Michael Ontkean for over 30 years until they divorced in 2019.

Has anyone read Jay's Journal?

I remember reading it as a kid & being kind of freaked out, though now it makes me laugh how easily I was scared. The kids now post nude selfies online, do all kinds of drugs and generally seem to be afraid of *nothing*. I don't think that's entirely a good thing, but still I can't help but laugh at how meek I was.

Not sure about the Mormon angle, but that whole "scared straight" thing (remember those videos when they threw troubled kids in jail to show them what prison was like?) was an adult scare tactic in the 70s. Now since kids have to deal with school shootings, it's the kids that are bold & the adults that are "scared straight"

My version wasn’t all lies

The part where Alice's date gets it on with another guy is hot.

Alice, you lied to me?

OMG, I think of all the things I got into because of you...

I got into "heavy petting" because of you...

My ex’s dad worked with the guy who married “Michelle” of “Michelle Remembers”, and wrote the book (being her therapist, then marrying her, then writing a book purported to be about her life? Not the most ethical choices, if you ask me, but he meant well…)

He worked as a forensic psychotherapist for the province, but he was also a bit eccentric. He sometimes roped in the local Catholic bishop to perform exorcisms on his clients (to be fair, exorcisms might work on Catholics, and provide a breakthrough, I think?😬)

“Michelle” was definitely abused, and is a absolute sweetheart who’s done so much charitable work, focusing on abused women and children. She’s a little nuts, but not in a bad way. The satanic stuff seems sketchy and was probably coached, though at one point (in the ‘80s), hospitals here made sure to step up security in the neonatal wards at certain times of the year (my ex’s mum was an RN, and told me this).

For real, though, Vancouver Island has tons of Wiccans, pagans, OTO, Golden Dawn, and others into Western esoterica. It’s nbd here. I don’t doubt there were people calling themselves Satanists in the ‘70s and using it as an excuse to be assholes. “Michelle” was probably a victim of some of those types.

As for “Go Ask Alice”? I’m a high school library tech, and have always made sure that piece of shit was shelved in FICTION, and I make sure to tell every kid who checked it out that, NO, you don’t just drop acid once and become addicted to acid because that’s fucking STUPID!

We were REQUIRED to read this in high school AND watch the film. I believed it because I loved drama.

when I was in junior high school the cool girls all read this book.

I don’t remember does she have a sapphic interlude in the book or get raped in the Juvie shower with a mop handle or anything?

Even when I read this book at (I think) 12 or 13, I knew it was fake.

All it did was make me want to try drugs.

[quote] Has anyone read Jay's Journal?

No, I never heard of it. Sounds camp as all get-out!

Because all heterosexual boys keep journals.

"Jay, what are you doing in the bathroom...you've been in there for a long time."

"I'm just journaling, Mom."

Alden Barrett was a severely depressed teenaged hippie living in an ultra-conservative Mormon household in an ultra-conservative Mormon small town. In the last few months of his life, he kept a notebook with his thoughts, drawings, and poetry. When he thought his girlfriend had gone off with another guy, he took his dad's pistol and shot himself. His mother gave his notebook to Sparks, thinking that she might use it in a productive way.

The bitch pulled about two dozen entries out of context, and then added dozens more, about witchcraft and Satanism. She did nothing to disguise Alden's identity despite the pseudonym, and as a result, his family was dragged through the mud, Alden's memory was perverted, and people kept desecrating his grave to the point that the family put his tombstone in storage for decades.

I'm dying to read this. I had no idea of the connection to that old fraud Art Linkletter, nor that the author of GAA was indirectly responsible for some of the satanic panic nonsense a decade later.

Some drag troupe ought to stage a production of Go Ask Alice.

R52, just don't invite children to see the drag queen performance, that might make you a GROOMER

And now I want to read all these books, particularly "Jay's Journal."

I want to read "Go Ask Linda Lavin".

[quote] Has anyone read Jay's Journal?

I read some of it. "Jay" apparently writes a lot like "Alice" does, but instead of foolishly getting involved with drugs he foolishly gets involved with the occult. He and his fellow teen occultists do things like killing a kitten and drinking blood. "Jay's Journal" came about because the mother of a teen boy who killed himself believed Sparks could do what she did with "Alice", that is, tell the world about her son and his teen troubles and maybe help other young people. His name was Alden Barrett; he had a genius IQ, was very sensitive and very in love with his girlfriend. He also suffered from severe depression. He did drugs but mental illness seemed to be his most serious problem. He killed himself at age 16 by shooting himself in the right temple (that's very significant in "Jay's Journal" and has something to do with all devilish goings on). Anyway, "Jay's Journal" was largely a work of fiction. More info:

The book's publication in 1979, as 'Jay's Journal,' shocked his family and their entire town, because of its depiction of Alden as someone who had gotten deeply involved in a bizarre occult Satanic group. The identifying details had also not been changed enough, so people in the community easily figured out "Jay's" true identity. It was later discovered that only 21 of the 212 journal entries were actually Alden's, and that the Satanic entries were from other teenagers Dr. Sparks had worked with, combined with things she had written herself. The real Alden's journal had never even mentioned such things. Because of the community reaction to what they believed to be Alden's actual journal, his family was forced to move, his parents eventually divorced, and his gravestone was vandalized several times, as well as being stolen and then returned facing in the opposite direction.

[quote]Wiccans, pagans, OTO, Golden Dawn

One of these things is not like the others...

In my Gen X adolescence and young adulthood, Go Ask Alice was a comic motif--we'd joke about going crazy and thinking we could fly and jumping out windows whenever we partied.

On the on other hand, recently a woman I work with told me that she came home from work to find her teenage son bruised and battered and disoriented. He'd dropped acid and among other things had jumped out his 2nd story window.

"Another day, another blow job!" should be the DL motto.

[quote]On the on other hand, recently a woman I work with told me that she came home from work to find her teenage son bruised and battered and disoriented. He'd dropped acid and among other things had jumped out his 2nd story window.

So it happens.

One pedantic point. The heroine of GAA is not named Alice; it’s just the title of the book (referencing the Jefferson Airplane song).

R61 I thought I did I good job referencing that in the intro.

I think my favorite tidbit from Unmask Alice was learning that, in her first book to be published after Jay's Journal (a gap of about fifteen years), It Happened to Nancy, Sparks wrote herself into the narrative as "Dr. Bee," a savior character for the protagonist, who arrives to help the wayward Nancy, who is dying of AIDS, via helicopter.

Yes, really.

How did Nancy catch the AIDS from a helicopter?

R59 = Beatrice Sparks

In the TV movie, Anonymous is called Alice.

If only Alice in that TV movie had been Alice Hyatt, as played by Linda Lavin.

"VEE-rah, TAWWM-ee and MEL want t' send me t' the loony bin f' my drugs! T' the nut house! The FREAK WHARF!"

I agree with R30 , that book was required reading in the Catholic School I attended . between that and watching "Dawn Portrait of Teenage Runaway " I was somewhat scared into not going near drugs and scene surrounding them at the time. Of course I dabbled with some illicit substances during my " extended gay adolescence" between the ages of 21-35 but I was better equipped emotionally and maturity wise to understand consequences and walk away and avoid addiction.

My favorite part of GAA was when Alice and her friend opened a hip boutique in San Francisco.

Go Ask Alice was sort of the teenage version of Valley of the Dolls. It was totally lurid and trashy, but lots of fun. No one cared if it was real.

The early Seventies produced a bumper crop of pass around fiction. Love Story, The Godfather, Go Ask Alice, of course. Jonathan Livingston Seagull. All inspired film adaptations. Now facing its 50th anniversary is "Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York." [I know. I know. This must be on another DL site.] This book was more for college age people and young adults and suburbanites. I remember the water cooler talk that the book produced, even in places without water coolers. The plotline, that a young woman would attempt suicide because she's not married, is dated, as are the references to gay men slathered in Bain de Soleil. Its author Gail Parent went on to greater success in TV. Still, Sheila Levine being "fat" is mentioned on nearly all pages, though by today's standards, she's not that hefty.

Oh well, it certainly could have been real. Kids back then were dropping out and tuning-in (getting high). And running away.

People still think "The Bell Jar" was an autobiography.

Here's another thing I just discovered! George Washington DID NOT cut down that cherry tree!

The rock opera about Alden Barrett's suicide (based on a book written by his brother) is making a comeback 25 years after it was first performed.

omg, R57: [quote]Wiccans, pagans, OTO, Golden Dawn One of these things is not like the others... [quote]—Pagan just means not monotheistic. Most of us don't practice ceremonial magick.

I was raised atheist on Vancouver Island, with the non-monotheistic traditions and beliefs that surrounded me (including indigenous ones) being more familiar to me than the “big three” monotheistic cults. I reallydidn’t mean to offend, but I understand why you may have been offended! My sincere apologies! ❤️

^ fuck me for fucking up the markdown. :/

[quote]Smith-Jackson was married to Michael Ontkean for over 30 years until they divorced in 2019.

Did he leave her for Harry Hamlin?

Why should stores stop selling it? What is fascist hell?

I preferred Born Innocent. Fuck Alice.

R5: Jane Fonda could have played her back in the day

It should be re-imagined as the story of a trans teenager of color:

Go Ask Alix

No apology needed, r75. I was just clarifying to dispel a common stereotype. 🙂

Thank you, R82! :)

[quote](based on a book written by his brother)

Ah yes. His brother who's a convicted pedophile.

I never read this book as a kid, but I had always assumed it was fiction.

Who knew?

Not me.

Sweet Savage Love was a much better primer for the young. So full of scintillating sex.

2/3 of the way through this now and while I knew extensively about Alice, I had never heard of Jay’s Journal. And now it’s all intertwining with Dungeons and Dragons fear, Satanic Panic and Paris Hilton!

R69 That’s how Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion ends, but the boutique is in LA not San Francisco, I wonder if that where they got the idea?

I ripped through this in a day. Fascinating book.

Beatrice Sparks hooked up with Art Linkletter after his daughter Diane, supposedly on acid, jumped out a window and killed herself. Linkletter thought this book could "speak" to young people. So many red flags, but it was a success.

"Jay's Journal" came about after a Mormon teen shot himself, leaving behind a school notebook with some poems and drawings. His mother gave it to Beatrice, hoping his story could help others. Bea COMPLETELY sensationalized it and made him and his friends Satanists that were killing and dismembering farm animals!

A fascinating look at the "Satanic Panic" of the 1980s and how many cops, prosecutors, and just plain grifters suddenly declared themselves Satanic experts and got in the lucrative con. The author takes Oprah to the woodshed over this.

It's a really, really fun read.

This review of Jay's Journal is a hoot!

I don’t really understand why everyone is so MMMAAARRRYYY about this author and her books. I read GAA as a teen and it made no impression on me as far as drugs were concerned. It was just an interesting read. I mostly remember her counting French fries.