Buzz
Reviews for
The Girl I Wanted to Be
“McCandless strikes just the right tone. This book is miles ahead of most…it's McCandless' deftness that I admire.”
– Marta Salij, Detroit Free Press
“Funny and poignant.”
– Teen Vogue
“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
“(A) thoughtful novel... the delicate manner in which sophomore novelist McCandless relays...comes as a surprise.”
– Publisher’s Weekly
“McCandless skillfully maintains an uncomfortable tension . . . [and] writes in an authentic adolescent voice. 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.”
– 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
“Touching and heartfelt. Sarah Grace McCandless navigates the minefields of family and adolescence with grace and skill. She's a writer to watch.”
– Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries and Queen of Babble
“Sarah Grace McCandless’ 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
“Sarah Grace McCandless writes of our foolishness with great wisdom, our lies with disarming candor, and the most difficult years of our lives with remarkable ease...if her books had been around when I was a teenager, I would probably have felt substantially less alone.”
– Bob Harris, author of Prisoner of Trebekistan
“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
“On the field of young writers, Sarah Grace McCandless is one to watch.”
– DCist.com
“A very impressive drama…I can’t wait to see what she does next.”
– Book Loons
“Touching and emotional…The Girl I Wanted to Be has some tender moments and it's with sharp precision that (McCandless) writes about the pressures of being fourteen years old.”
– Conversations with Famous Writers
“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… Amazingly written. Completely gripping. This book could be enjoyed by young and old alike.”
– Reader Views
Reviews forGrosse Pointe Girl: Tales From a Suburban Adolescence
“This is the ‘80s…but the humiliations and pretensions are timeless. (McCandless) hilariously captures teen politics . . . there’s compassion beneath the dead-on details... a polished debut.”
– People
“McCandless skewers 80s adolescence.”
– Entertainment Weekly (Recommended Beach Reading)
“A witty look at what it takes to be accepted…(and) the inevitable pitfalls of growing up.”
– Sarah Frame, The Detroit News
“When dreck like Grosse Pointe Pimp can sell out in Grosse Pointe bookstores, I can't even imagine the future for McCandless' far better debut, Grosse Pointe Girl. Can the stores order enough? Can the printers print enough?"
– Marta Salij, The Detroit Free Press
“Grosse Pointe Girl could've easily ended up as an insipid coming-of-age tale. Instead McCandless manages to make the reader aware of how much people already understand, and willfully ignore, of the world around them in those hateful/halcyon years.”
– Willamette Week
“A hilarious, spot-on survey of the humiliations and perilous victories of a privileged adolescence…(her) wickedly funny descriptions and unerring ear for teen dialogue will appeal to any reader who remembers, or is surviving, the stomach-twisting anxiety of becoming an adult.”
– Booklist
“McCandless writes with humor and compassion and honesty about the most embarrassing time in all our lives.”
– Pam Houston, author of Cowboys Are My Weakness
“Sarah Grace McCandless is a flat-out fantastic writer. Among her many gifts is an ability to combine laugh-out-loud humor with an unaffected, devastating sadness. The result is absolute magic – the strange, beautiful truth about childhood revealed.”
– Joe Weisberg, author of 10th Grade
