The Girl I Wanted to Be

About the Book
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 are better left unsaid. Will the illicit thrill of being a trusted confidant, 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.
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Reviews
"Touching and heartfelt. Sarah Grace McCandless navigates the minefields of family and adolescence with grce and skill. She's a writer to watch."
- Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries and Queen of Babble
"Sarah Grace McCandless's The Girl I Wanted to Be is a unique coming-of-age story where not only adolescents are growing up, but beautifully flawed adults -- complicated characters whose secrets are revealed with precision and candor, with a deft eye and plenty of heart."
- Lisa Glatt, author of A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That and The Apple's Bruise
"McCandless skillfully maintains an uncomfortable tension...and 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...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, Booklist
"Presley's voice comes through with a believable mixture of confusion, innocence, and growing wisdom. Her story is enhanced by a narrative style that employs brief episodes and story gaps. The resulting breaks in the book deepen its complexity, providing space for conflicting emotions and paralleling Presley's need to deny and ignore patterns until forced to confront loss and forgiveness."
- Library Journal
"(A) thoughtful novel... the delicate manner in which sophomore novelist McCandless relays...comes as a surprise."
- Publisher's Weekly
“McCandless strikes just the right tone. This book is miles ahead of most…it's McCandless' deftness that I admire.”
- Marta Salij, The Detroit Free Press
“Presley, the narrator, is a gem, and McCandless indulges her with wonderful lines and memorable epiphanies...the writing is confident and honest.”
- Steve Duin, The Oregonian
“(The Girl I Wanted to Be is) even more accomplished...before this book is over, (Presley) will learn that some losses are permanent, no matter how badly one wishes to turn back the clock…a book for young adults and adults.”
- John Mark Eberhart, The Kansas City Star
“An affectionate story...McCandless nails the pain and humor of adolescence.”
- Newcity Chicago
“On the field of young writers, Sarah Grace McCandless is one to watch.”
- DCist.com
“Blending pop culture appreciation with the voice of adolescent confusion and maturation, Sarah Grace McCandless’ books are sophisticated indulgences that explore life in the suburban teen wasteland.”
- Venus Magazine
“The Girl I Wanted to Be documents the coming-of-age of 14-year-old Presley Moran but eschews typical teen rites of passage such as periods, prom, and losing one’s virginity. McCandless focuses on fallen idols, family tragedies, and other more wrenching points of maturation.”
- Washington City Paper