Girl, Unframed

Seven starred reviews!
“A riveting, meticulously plotted mystery with plenty of drama.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

A teen girl’s summer with her famous mother turns sinister in this gripping thriller inspired by a real-life Hollywood murder from Printz Honor–winning and National Book Award finalist author Deb Caletti—perfect for fans of Courtney Summers’s Sadie.

Sydney Reilly has a bad feeling about going home to San Francisco before she even gets on the plane. How could she not? Her mother is Lila Shore—the Lila Shore—a film star who prizes her beauty and male attention above all else…certainly above her daughter.

But Sydney’s worries multiply when she discovers that Lila is involved with the dangerous Jake, an art dealer with shady connections. Jake loves all beautiful objects, and Sydney can feel his eyes on her whenever he’s around. And he’s not the only one. Sydney is starting to attract attention—good and bad—wherever she goes: from sweet, handsome Nicco Ricci, from the unsettling construction worker next door, and even from Lila. Behaviors that once seemed like misunderstandings begin to feel like threats as the summer grows longer and hotter.

But real danger, crimes of passion, the kind of stuff where someone gets killed—it only mostly happens in the movies, Sydney is sure. Until the night something life-changing happens on the stairs that lead to the beach. A thrilling night that goes suddenly very wrong. When loyalties are called into question. And when Sydney learns a terrible truth: beautiful objects can break.

BUY THE BOOK

384 pages

Average rating: 7

2 RATINGS

|

Community Reviews

stackedlibrarian
Dec 11, 2024
8/10 stars
My first Deb Caletti title, but it won’t be my last! Perfectly captured the inner voice/mind of the teenage woman.
tonyalee
Jul 19, 2023
6/10 stars
This wasn’t at all what I was expecting but not in a bad way?

I see a lot of myself in Sydney - and I think many teen girls and women will as well. It would have been such a powerful book for me to read as a teen and the things I went through that the author is addressing.

Full RTC

See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.