# Is \[u\]Go Ask Alice\[/u\] a real diary? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-u-go-ask-alice-u-a-real-diary/169451 "2003-04-18T01:07:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ratty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ccd318/32.png) [@ratty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratty)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2003, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-u-go-ask-alice-u-a-real-diary/169451/21 "2003-04-19T18:54:58Z")
Whoa- the same woman who wrote Go Ask Alice also wrote Jay’s Journal? I sense a pattern here. I picked up an excellent book debunking the “satanic panic” of the late 80’s/early 90’s in the US & UK. It’s called The Lure of the Sinister by Gareth J. Medway, and I highly recommend it. Medway refers to Jay’s Journal several times in the book and provides compelling evidence to indicate the entire ‘diary’ was a fabrication. He mentions that the ‘author’, (Beatrice Sparks, although he never specifically names her) spent a lot of time interviewing people who were at the time making claims to have been involved with satanic cults and cult-related crime. These people were later proven to be hoaxers or mentally unbalanced. Go Ask Alice is a rather suspicious piece of work, any way you look at it. It is filled with foreshadowing and other literary devices that few people, especially a supposedly drugged-out teenager would use while keeping a daily journal. It is also very heavy-handed and reads like a public service announcement. Jay’s Journal, which was passed around my high school in the early 90’s by well-meaning religious folk, is even more of a sham. It is more-or-less one of those “true haunting” books, which while purporting to be 100% non-fiction, is filled with lurid descriptions of supernatural events that just can’t seem to be scientifically documented by anyone anywhere ever. It is also heavily laced with Christian docrine and, dare I say it? propaganda. This woman is getting less and less credible by the minute. If anyone can prove to me that Go Ask Alice is 100% true and can provide extensive documentation of this, I will personally eat every copy my public library possesses. ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2003, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-u-go-ask-alice-u-a-real-diary/169451/22 "2003-04-19T22:29:11Z")
Hee! She’s lucky as a therapist and an editor that so many of her clients kept diaries _and_ handed them over for publication. Wonder if it were a condition of being a client? Bwahaha! Another vote for fake here. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-u-go-ask-alice-u-a-real-diary/169451/23 "2003-04-21T22:37:09Z")
At least I’m not the only one who thinks she’s a scammer. I only skimmed the list of books she’d “edited,” so I must have missed Jay’s Journal. That one sounds extra suspicious. ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-u-go-ask-alice-u-a-real-diary/169451/24 "2003-04-22T07:46:26Z")
_Jay’s Journal_ is patently absurd on the face of it. I wonder if “Raoul” is the same guy James Earl Ray met in Montreal? ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-u-go-ask-alice-u-a-real-diary/169451/25 "2003-04-22T08:20:15Z")
[This](http://www.shutitdown.net/text/askalice.html) is a nice piece on Sparks’ shortcomings. Note that [this site](http://www.rickwalton.com/utahauth/bsparks.htm) touting her as a speaker states “Sparks’ books are mainly written from case histories.” ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-u-go-ask-alice-u-a-real-diary/169451/26 "2003-04-22T23:33:15Z")
Thanks for the link, **don’t ask**. I wonder about that PhD… Of course, she could have a Dr. Laura degree (i.e. an actual degree, but not in the field she claims to specialize in.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-u-go-ask-alice-u-a-real-diary/169451.md?page=1)