The Girl I Wanted to Be

April 3, 2006
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.

Fourteen-year-old Presley Moran is looking for a role model as she enters high school. When her irresponsible Aunt Betsi, an alcoholic just out of rehab, comes to live with Presley's family, she thinks she's found one. Marguerite Gavin reads this coming-of-age story in the voice of a teenager, with slight variations in inflection for the other characters. Gavin reads slowly, allowing the story to unfold from the young protagonist's perspective. When Aunt Betsi sets fire to the house--twice--the listener wonders at Presley's choice of hero. Then Betsi asks Presley to keep a secret, and life starts to spiral out of control. McCandless emphasizes the crises in a teenager's life as she learns about life, friends, and family loyalty. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine