McCandless, Sarah Grace 1974(?)-

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McCandless, Sarah Grace 1974(?)-

PERSONAL: Born c. 1974, in Chicago, IL. Education: Michigan State University, B.A., 1996.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Jenny Bent, Trident Media Group, 41 Madison Ave., 36th Fl., New York, NY 10010.

CAREER: Dark Horse Comics, Portland, OR, marketing director, 1999-2004; freelance writer, 2004—.

WRITINGS

Grosse Pointe Girl: Tales from a Suburban Adolescence (novel), illustrated by Christine Norrie, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.

The Girl I Wanted to Be (novel), Simon & Schuster Paperbacks (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to Sexy Chix: An Anthology of Women Writers and Artists, illustrated by Joelle Jones, Dark Horse Comics, 2006. Contributor to periodicals, including Mudsugar, Daily Candy, and Venus.

SIDELIGHTS: Sarah Grace McCandless left her job as a marketing director for Dark Horse Comics to become a freelance writer. Her first two books since setting off on her own are Grosse Pointe Girl: Tales from a Suburban Adolescence and The Girl I Wanted to Be, both of which, while featuring teenaged protagonists, have been marketed toward both adult and young adult audiences. Grosse Pointe Girl draws on many autobiographical elements from the author, who grew up in Michigan. Set in the 1980s, the novel features Emma Harris, a sixth grader who has just moved to a suburb of Detroit. Here, she meets some wealthy kids and becomes friends with Katrina, before her parents divorce and she, just like McCandless herself, has to move to an apartment. McCandless writes with humor about the various typical episodes the young Emma lives through, but “these tales are darker and more elegiac than the bouncy prose suggests,” according to a Kirkus Reviews writer, who noted episodes about drinking, sex, and even suicide. Other reviewers focused more on the author’s ability to capture her characters well. Gillian Engberg, writing for Booklist, lauded McCandless’s “wickedly funny descriptions and her unerring ear for teen dialogue,” while People critic Lori Gottlieb felt she “hilariously captures teen politics.”

In the follow-up novel, The Girl I Wanted to Be, the story features a slightly older girl, fourteen year old Presley Moran. Presley greatly admires her Aunt Betsi, whom she regards as a mentor as the girl gets ready to enter high school, and is attracted to her handsome cousin Barry. She is thus mortified when she learns that these two important people in her life are having a love affair. Presley looks for emotional support from her friends at school, but only finds it from Jack, a friend of Barry’s. According to a Kirkus Reviews critic, this second novel “capture[s] some of the nuances of adolescence, but while the story hangs together well, it isn’t deep enough to transcend the alienating tone of youth.” On the other hand, a writer for Publishers Weekly felt that, although the plot itself does not “come as a surprise . . . the delicate manner in which sophomore novelist McCandless . . . relays the affair does.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 1, 2004, Gillian Engberg, review of Grosse Pointe Girl: Tales from a Suburban Adolescence, p. 1546; April 15, 2006, Gillian Engberg, review of The Girl I Wanted to Be, p. 29.

Kansas City Star, June 24, 2006, John Mark Eberhart, “I’ve Got a Secret? It’s Tough to Make the Right Choices at 14.”

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2004, review of Grosse Pointe Girl, p. 353; April 15, 2006, review of The Girl I Wanted to Be, p. 373.

Library Journal, June 15, 2004, Jan Blodgett, review of Grosse Pointe Girl, p. 59; May 1, 2006, Jan Blodgett, review of The Girl I Wanted to Be, p. 80.

People, June 28, 2004, Lori Gottlieb, review of Grosse Pointe Girl, p. 47.

Publishers Weekly, April 3, 2006, review of The Girl I Wanted to Be, p. 37.