The Girl I Wanted to Be

by Sarah Grace McCandless

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743285182
• ISBN13: 9780743285186
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

The pains of growing up

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.

Growing Up, growing wiser

Reviewed by Beverly Pechin (7/06) "The Girl I Wanted to Be" is a story of growing up, growing wiser and suddenly realizing life isn't always what you thought it was as a child. A wonderful piece of fiction that encompasses the life of a young girl, coming of age as a teenager. Like all of us, she couldn't wait for the time when she too would be one of the 'cool teens' that she admired as a young child. But perhaps growing older has its consequences also, as she finds that the one person she loved and admired most had a lot more skeletons in her closet than one could ever imagine. The seemingly perfect life of her Aunt Betsi, the same person who was given the exclusive honor of naming her niece Presley, starts to unravel before Presley's very eyes as she seems to venture down the right of passage to young adulthood. Perhaps this seemingly cool, totally together woman whom Presley had looked up to her entire life wasn't exactly as together as she thought. Family secrets no longer remain secret as you cross over to young adulthood and sometimes you realize that the one person in the world that you thought was who you really wanted to grow up to be like, might not really be the person you want to end up like anymore. A touching, realistic piece of work that not only somehow grasps the reader in its holds immediately, there is some mystical power that the author seems to have over you that makes you want more and more. I simply couldn't put it down, reading through the night until I finished. Perhaps because the author does such a wonderful job at not only making you feel as though you too are a part of this family and learning the secrets but because you suddenly realize that every one of us has had this experience when we suddenly crossed over to adult hood and realized that life isn't always what it seems. Amazingly written. Completely gripping. This book could be enjoyed by young and old alike. A completely realistic, down to earth novel that reminds us how quickly our lives change when we take that right to passage into growing up.

It's a story almost anyone can releate to!

In The Girl I Wanted To Be, Sarah Grace McCandless introduces readers to a colorful, believable cast of characters. Presley Moran is a high school freshman, named Presley by her mother's sister, Betsi, after Elvis. Presley's aunt, Betsi, was only a teenager when Presley was born, and Presley has never called the former homecoming queen "aunt" anything--she's always just been Betsi. Barry is Presley's cousin on her father's side, a senior at Presley's school; Presley seems to be known by other students just for being his cousin. Presley Moran's is a coming of age story full of secrets. Since she was five years old, she has been Betsi's trusted confidante, and now Betsi has secrets that Presley isn't sure she wants to know. Presley, however, is growing up, and entering the adult world that Betsi's secrets are a part of. When Betsi and Barry aren't living up to Presley's ideas of them, she can't deal with it, and has to find someone who knows the secrets she does. Can Presley reconcile with her and realize they are real, imperfect people as well as being her idols? McCandless is certainly brilliant at creating fantastic, life-like characters. Betsi and Barry are both idolized by Presley, and are painted by this brilliant writer as very real, complicated characters. Character development is another strength of hers. As this novel progresses, Presley really grows up from a child into a young adult. Besides her strength at creating great characters, McCandless is also an amazing writer with an equally brilliant story to tell. It is a story of secrets, growing up, and seeing people, flawed as they may be, for who they are, and dealing with that. Armchair Interviews says: It's a story that almost anyone can relate to, and this author tells it beautifully in The Girl I Wanted To Be.

Not just for girls

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.

AN ASSURRED SECOND NOVEL

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.