Freshman Presley Moran, named by her young Aunt Betsi after
the King, is at the family reunion and thinking about high
school, where she will be entering not only a much bigger
building, but her heartthrob senior cousin Barry's
territory. Also, Betsi moves in temporarily with Presley's
family while she finds a job, a place to stay and a way to
re-adjust to life outside a rehabilitation clinic. Presley
has no problem with her aunt staying in the house, though;
she has always had a close relationship with the woman who
is too young, too laid back and too much like a friend to
be called aunt."
However, Presley's idol starts to slowly crumble. Catching
fire to the house with a candle, little things begin to
tick away at Presley, although the house was undamaged
except for some pride and some scorch marks. No matter
what's happening at home, Presley must enter high school
and she does so with Barry, her best friend Hannah, and
Barry's best friend Jack, who is more of a pest than
anything. One night at a sleepover birthday party, Presley
overhears a private conversation of Betsi's with a lover,
whose identity the aunt will not share; in fact, all Betsi
will divulge is that she does not think the lover is long-
term. She even breaks up with him and moves on to another.
Barry, meanwhile, is starting to lose his academic/sports
shine, and when a hooded man who turns out to be Barry
shows up out front on Halloween, arguing with Betsi,
Presley doesn't know what to think.
When a tragic event occurs that affects all of their lives,
Presley, with the help of her friends, begins to move on
emotionally. Betsi, however, doesn't do so well, and takes
a turn for the worse.
THE GIRL I WANTED TO BE is an honest view into the life of
a teenager as she realizes that all idols fall and that
even adults can't handle it all; this is exactly the way a
girl would see her family, her friends, her life. The
characters are so real that I had a hard time realizing
that they were fictional, and the plot was well-planned, if
a tad predictable. By the end of the book, I wanted to
watch Presley go all through high school, but as it is, I'm
glad I got to meet her for just that year in this symbolic
and soulful 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 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?
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