Girl, Unframed

Deb Caletti writes YA that often deals with abuse, control, and young women paying attention to warning signs. Girl Unframed sends fifteen year old Sydney to spend the summer in San Francisco with her actress mother and the new man in her mother’s life. The book opens with Sydney telling the reader that something bad is going to happen, and most of the novel is the slow accumulation of why.

Caletti writes with restraint. Sydney’s narration is observant in the way teenagers actually are, noticing things adults dismiss. The book takes its time letting the reader see what Sydney is seeing.

The ending lands. Caletti doesn’t soften it.

For readers who like Laurie Halse Anderson’s serious YA work, or who appreciated A.S. King’s strange but emotionally sharp novels, Caletti is in the same conversation. This is not light reading. Worth knowing going in.