The Girl I Wanted to Be: A Novel [Paperback]

Sarah Grace McCandless (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 23, 2006

As a lowly freshman named for "The King," Presley Moran walks high school corridors paved with the stuff of family legend. Her cousin Barry, a senior heartthrob and brainy varsity letterman, insists that looking good on paper is the key to success. But Presley's young aunt Betsi, a former homecoming queen, has her own ideas about good looks and how to use them.

"Can you keep a secret?" Betsi asks Presley, who, at age fourteen, is eager for entrée into the adult world of beauty, attraction, and romance. But as Presley is about to discover, some secrets should never be revealed. Will the illicit thrill of being a trusted confidante, privy to the details of muddled entanglements and incompatible desires, be worth the consequences of guilt by association?

Propelled by the crash of falling idols, The Girl I Wanted to Be is a timeless and true portrait of passion, loss, and hard-won wisdom.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the start of this thoughtful novel it's clear that the girl who 14-year-old Presley Moran wants to be is her vivacious, daring and alcoholic aunt, Betsi. Only a teenager when her niece was born, Betsi convinced her sister to name the baby Presley, after Elvis. But Presley is everything her aunt isn't: cautious, insightful and wise. Though she is blessed with a close extended family and a nerdy younger brother (saved from easy caricature by taking comfortably to his thick glasses and pressed shirts), Presley still must learn to navigate the murky waters of high school. Hunky first cousin Barry, a popular senior, is a help, but when he becomes secretly involved with Betsi, a relative through marriage, tragedy threatens. Presley's string of high school firsts—including Halloween mischief and slumber parties—are soon outweighed by dismay and disillusionment at her discovery of Betsi and Barry's relationship, which turns predictably ugly. Their coupling doesn't come as a surprise, but the delicate manner in which sophomore novelist McCandless (Grosse Pointe Girl) relays the affair does. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

At a family pig roast, 14-year-old Presley first notices the vibe between her sexy older cousin, Barry, and her young aunt, Betsi. Barry is a senior in Presley's high school; Betsi, just returned from rehab, is staying with Presley's family until she's resettled into her own life. Almost immediately, readers will sense the volatile, secret romance between Barry and Betsi (who are linked by marriage, not blood), and McCandless skillfully maintains an uncomfortable tension as Presley slowly learns the truth, and then suffers with the impossible weight of what she knows. As in Gross Pointe Girl: Tales from a Suburban Adolescence (2004), McCandless writes in an authentic adolescent voice about a young person's attempts to reconcile her own intuition and experiences with the patronizing doublespeak and contradictions in the adult world: "Why Mom didn't just come out and say Betsi had a drinking problem, I don't know." These sharply perceptive moments showing how children navigate the puzzles of their own families will impact readers as much as the story's larger tragedies. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Original edition (May 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743285182
• ISBN-13: 978-0743285186
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,724,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Sarah Grace was born and raised in the Midwest. She is the creator of FORTUNATE COOKIE (www.fortunatecookieblog.com), an experiment that involves using messages from weekly fortune cookies as her life compass. She has also published short fiction and essays in a number of anthologies, including CASSETTE FROM MY EX: STORIES AND SOUNDTRACKS OF LOST LOVES (St. Martin's) and SEXY CHIX (Dark Horse Comics), and also writes the monthly pop culture column, CRUSH, for FORCES OF GEEK (www.forcesofgeek.com).

SG lives just outside of New York with her husband and her dog Nancy Drew. She is currently working on a new book project, semi-stalking Tina Fey, and putting the "White Wine and Cupcakes Diet" into daily practice. Visit her online at www.sarahdisgrace.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for girls, July 13, 2006

By 

S. Jaquith - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Girl I Wanted to Be: A Novel (Paperback)

If you're a guy in your forties and you're sitting on the bus reading a book titled The Girl I Wanted To Be you may well get a few odd looks from your fellow passengers.

It's worth it.

It's not that anything extraordinary happens in this book. No one cracks an ancient secret code or suffers under the thumb of a malevolent fashion maven. It's the story of a relatively normal young woman experiencing life. What is extraordinary is the way in which the tale is told. McCandless has a way of capturing the specifics of a moment that acutely connects you to the character. Even if your life experiences are vastly different, you understand not only what is happening, but how it feels in your gut. Even if you're a guy in your forties reading a book on the bus.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN ASSURRED SECOND NOVEL, June 23, 2006

By 

Jamie S. Rich (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Girl I Wanted to Be: A Novel (Paperback)

THE GIRL I WANTED TO BE is the second novel by Sarah Grace McCandless, and it's hella good, to use the phrase of a couple of years ago. For fans of her first book, GROSSE POINTE GIRL, I think you'll be impressed by how much stronger her prose has become. The book is the story of a fourteen-year-old girl in the early '90s whose world is starting to crumble with the onset of maturity. Sarah really captures that seasick time, where you aren't really sure how to keep your feet flat on this thing we call Earth, as childish things and adult disappointment play tug-of-war with your changing body. Her writing is evocative while also using great economy. In chronicling a family who discuss their problems by talking around them, she developed a style of expression that inspires the reader to come to his or her own conclusions by how carefully the root of those problems are withheld.

To classify THE GIRL I WANTED TO BE as some kind of simple young adult novel would be to do it a disservice. It's a far more mature work than that, shedding light on foibles and personal treacheries that have no age restrictions.

5.0 out of 5 stars The pains of growing up, October 25, 2006

By 

Erin Brooks "Erin Brooks" (London) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Girl I Wanted to Be: A Novel (Paperback)

This is a touching story of 14 year old Presley, who's learning hard lessons in life through her relationship and experiences with her family, especially her young aunt Betsi and cousin Barry. After some personal problems Betsi comes to live in Presley's house, and Presley finds herself privy to some secrets that she shouldn't have known and that will change her and her family. She learns lessons in love, crushes, friends, school, loss but above all about her family and those that are closest to her. She is a young heroine but her emotions, feelings and the sincerity between Presley and the other characters, esp. Barry, is deeply touching and make the story even more heartbreaking. Highly recommended.