From the Publisher
Brilliant . . . Piper Weiss has crafted a book that marries true crime to memoir. . . . and Weiss shines as a memoirist—seamlessly unveiling the unexpected and the startling, revealing the raw, ragged truth about her conflicted and slightly twisted teenage self.” — Ivy Pochoda, Los Angeles Times
“Intriguing . . . Weiss has a wonderful eye for the evocative detail . . . and a light but effective touch when summing up the zeitgeist.” — New York Times Book Review
“Equal Parts true-crime investigation and self-reflection . . . Bracingly honest and extremely discomfiting, this book is like a riveting episode of Law & Order: SVU set at a Manhattan prep school with the U.S. Open as a backdrop.” — Marie Claire
“Gorgeous, moody, and evocative . . . half coming-of-age story and half exhaustively researched true crime. . . . Weiss’s retelling is respectful, eschewing sensationalism for self-investigation, insightful metaphor, and lyrical turns of phrase.” — Vanity Fair
“You All Grow Up and Leave Me is unflinching, rich and revelatory, not just about its twin subjects—the true crime at the heart of the book and the wrenching coming-of-age story that surrounds it—but about the dangers, fragility and piercing beauty of girlhood itself.” — Megan Abbott, bestselling author of You Will Know Me
“A memoir so wholly original and brilliantly written, I feel comfortable saying nothing else in the genre compares. You All Grow Up and Leave Me perfectly marries the tenderness of coming-of-age with the horror of true crime . . . a gorgeous, haunting book.” — Shondaland.com
“There’s a true crime story at the heart of this memoir—and a deeply disturbing one at that. But You All Grow Up and Leave Me is also a haunting, evocative, and thoroughly immersive tale that details the thrill and terror of growing up. I loved it.” — Alison Gaylin, bestselling author of If I Die Tonight
“Exquisitely captures the constantly shifting terrain of adolescence and the complicated—sometimes dangerous—politics of relationships between adults and teenagers . . . You All Grow Up and Leave Me is a compulsively readable and beautifully crafted book.” — Kristen Radtke, author of Imagine Wanting Only This
“Into an enthralling true-crime story of a middle-aged tennis coach’s fixation on young girls, Piper Weiss has smuggled a tender, introspective, and beautifully written coming-of-age memoir . . . the ‘teenage obsession’ here brilliantly cuts both ways.” — Teddy Wayne, bestselling author of Loner
“There’s a fine line between obsessions that shape us, and obsessions that veer into dangerous territory. In You All Grow Up and Leave Me, Piper Weiss shows how they overlap with a reporter’s eye and a poet’s heart.” — Michele Filgate, writer and Contributing Editor at Literary Hub
“Dark and brooding yet brisk and eloquently written . . . [Weiss’s] vivid coming-of-age narration shines a spotlight on the precarious relationship between teenagers and adults and everything that can go awry in between. A bristling, harrowing journey into the life of a stalker and his unsuspecting victims.” — Kirkus Reviews
“So wildly chilling, you might forget that it’s a true story.” — HelloGiggles, Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018
“Riveting...Although the true crimes and potential crimes of Wilensky are the inciting incidents for Weiss’s story, these tabloid headlines are a small part of the whole, a compelling coming-of-age story.” — Chonogram.com
Vanity Fair
Gorgeous, moody, and evocative . . . half coming-of-age story and half exhaustively researched true crime. . . . Weiss’s retelling is respectful, eschewing sensationalism for self-investigation, insightful metaphor, and lyrical turns of phrase.
New York Times Book Review
Intriguing . . . Weiss has a wonderful eye for the evocative detail . . . and a light but effective touch when summing up the zeitgeist.
Michele Filgate
There’s a fine line between obsessions that shape us, and obsessions that veer into dangerous territory. In You All Grow Up and Leave Me, Piper Weiss shows how they overlap with a reporter’s eye and a poet’s heart.
Megan Abbott
You All Grow Up and Leave Me is unflinching, rich and revelatory, not just about its twin subjects—the true crime at the heart of the book and the wrenching coming-of-age story that surrounds it—but about the dangers, fragility and piercing beauty of girlhood itself.
Alison Gaylin
There’s a true crime story at the heart of this memoir—and a deeply disturbing one at that. But You All Grow Up and Leave Me is also a haunting, evocative, and thoroughly immersive tale that details the thrill and terror of growing up. I loved it.
Ivy Pochoda
Brilliant . . . Piper Weiss has crafted a book that marries true crime to memoir. . . . and Weiss shines as a memoirist—seamlessly unveiling the unexpected and the startling, revealing the raw, ragged truth about her conflicted and slightly twisted teenage self.
Kristen Radtke
Exquisitely captures the constantly shifting terrain of adolescence and the complicated—sometimes dangerous—politics of relationships between adults and teenagers . . . You All Grow Up and Leave Me is a compulsively readable and beautifully crafted book.
Marie Claire
Equal Parts true-crime investigation and self-reflection . . . Bracingly honest and extremely discomfiting, this book is like a riveting episode of Law & Order: SVU set at a Manhattan prep school with the U.S. Open as a backdrop.
Shondaland.com
A memoir so wholly original and brilliantly written, I feel comfortable saying nothing else in the genre compares. You All Grow Up and Leave Me perfectly marries the tenderness of coming-of-age with the horror of true crime . . . a gorgeous, haunting book.
Teddy Wayne
Into an enthralling true-crime story of a middle-aged tennis coach’s fixation on young girls, Piper Weiss has smuggled a tender, introspective, and beautifully written coming-of-age memoir . . . the ‘teenage obsession’ here brilliantly cuts both ways.
Chonogram.com
Riveting...Although the true crimes and potential crimes of Wilensky are the inciting incidents for Weiss’s story, these tabloid headlines are a small part of the whole, a compelling coming-of-age story.
Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2018 HelloGiggles
So wildly chilling, you might forget that it’s a true story.
Kirkus Reviews
2018-02-06
A woman who grew up under the tutelage of a predatory child molester shares her story.As a youth in Manhattan, Weiss (My Mom, Style Icon, 2011) was a tennis hopeful at "one of the top private schools in the country." Her memoir, a lyrically crafted yet unsettling affair, opens on a bus, with she and her classmates on their way to tennis lessons. She learned about Gary Wilensky, an in-demand private coach who became popular with many other girls at the school. The book's framework is culled from police reports, articles, interviews, personal field research, and Wilensky's own words, transcribed from documents. Through this dogged research, Weiss charts Wilensky's early life and his sketchy employment history and then moves into his private life, which became increasingly disturbing and sinister, ultimately revealing the shrouded world of a sexual obsessive who preyed on vulnerable, unassuming young girls. Running alongside this narrative is the story of the author's privileged upbringing and adolescent experiences, which paint a multitonal portrait of a girl in flux with schoolwork, insecurities, desires to succeed and discover herself, all while blissfully unaware of the predatory deviant lurking beneath the facade of a goofy middle-aged tennis coach who was cool with all the kids. By the time the author had her first tennis lessons with "Grandpa Gary" in the early 1990s, he had already amassed a group of favorite girls to whom he'd send valentines and divulge intimate secrets. Wilensky also began fully furnishing a remote cabin hideaway with bondage and torture equipment and surveillance technology. Was Weiss his next victim? No one will ever know; Wilensky killed himself after the failed kidnapping attempt of a mother and daughter he'd been stalking. Weiss has crafted a dark and brooding yet brisk and eloquently written memoir, and her vivid coming-of-age narration shines a spotlight on the precarious relationship between teenagers and adults and everything that can go awry in between.A bristling, harrowing journey into the life of a stalker and his unsuspecting victims.
