Girl, Unframed

*SEVEN starred reviews

*Project Rise: A Feminist Book Project selection 2021

*Washington State Book Award Finalist

*Amazon’s Best Books of the Month selection

*Bookpage Best Books of 2020

“Caletti is at the top of her game in this fully dimensional mystery… As college student Sydney Reilly unfolds the story of her sixteenth summer in a San Francisco mansion with her movie-star mother, Lila Shore, what begins as a beautifully described moment of sexual awakening takes on Syd's growing feminism and refusal to be anyone's object. Chapter headings hint at the main event by listing exhibits from what we begin to realize is a murder trial. Raised by her maternal grandmother, Edwina, while her mother struggles to revive her flagging career, Syd is reluctant to leave her comfortable life in Seattle and spend the summer with egocentric, childlike Lila—especially with Lila's new boyfriend, shady art dealer Jake, living with them as well. Jake is alternately jealous of Syd's presence and uncomfortably attentive, judging her clothing, her activities, and especially her new boyfriend, Nicco. Tensions build to a riveting and realistic climax that recalls the Lana Turner/Cheryl Crane/Johnny Stompanato incident. With a subtle, believable twist that encapsulates this particular mother/daughter relationship, Caletti delivers the near impossible: a page-turner grounded in thoughtful feminism. There are so many beautiful small touches, from the multiple meanings of the title to the sweet rituals Syd and Nicco develop to the importance of therapy to recover from trauma. Name recognition aside, this is a title deserving wide promotion and discussion.”

— Booklist (Starred Review)

“Syd’s story outlines important, uncomfortable experiences many girls face without either flinching or offering a picture-perfect ending… A frank, engrossing examination of the ways society complicates young women’s burgeoning sexuality.”

—Kirkus (Starred Review)

“Caletti (A Heart in a Body in the World) offers a riveting, meticulously plotted mystery with plenty of drama alongside an exploration of objectification and the male gaze. San Francisco’s sandy beaches, unusual structures, and mysterious caves reflect Sydney’s feelings of loneliness, eeriness, and passion, and her eventual sense of power.”

—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“Caletti’s novel is a brilliant coming-of-age story wrapped in a page-turning thriller. The atmospheric San Francisco setting enhances the overall moodiness, anxiety, and restlessness of a young woman moving from girlhood to adulthood and finding herself under the male gaze for the first time. Caletti’s sharp, complex, well-drawn character will compel and delight readers. VERDICT Ultimately hopeful, this is one for fans of realistic contemporary dramas, with a side of mystery, and excellent writing throughout.”

—School Library Journal (Starred Review)

“The plot is clearly inspired by the 1958 killing of Lana Turner’s abusive boyfriend by her daughter (Lila is also embarking on a role in Peyton Place, just as Turner did), but even readers unfamiliar with that saga will catch the clear danger and the ramping up of tension here (chapters even open with references to evidence as “exhibits”). Caletti uses the Turner incident as the scaffold for a gimlet-eyed examination of the vulnerability of women and, especially, teen girls in the contemporary world; of their objectification and agency and shame. She’s unerring in her depiction of the microaggressions Syd experiences, the family’s long history of domestic abuse, and of Jake himself, whose combination of likability, off-kilterness, and menace makes him plausible and plausibly difficult to leave for multiple reasons.”

—BCCB (Starred Review)

“Deb Caletti's Girl, Unframed is a revelatory condemnation of the objectification of women… Caletti (A Heart in a Body in the World) captures the insidious and ever-present sexualization and exploitation of women with penetrating prose: "My body was a billboard to remark on. My body was someone else's entertainment, a story that had nothing to do with me at all." …As the plot ratchets up, it becomes clear that a treacherous conclusion awaits. Deb Caletti's sinister YA thriller, Girl Unframed, is an incisive vindication of women's constant battle with the male gaze.”

—Shelf Awareness (Starred Review)

“This introspective novel offers a perceptive examination of a young woman’s journey, not to the life-changing “IT” she imagined, but to a hard-won understanding of the persistant contradictions that still govern how women are perceived, particularly when it feels like the eyes of the world are upon them.”

—BookPage (Starred Review)

"Once again, Deb Caletti confronts the contradictions society places on young women with grit and grace, only this time she does it as a page-turning thriller. This book is both thought-provoking and utterly fun."

—Melanie Ferguson, bbgb tales for kids (Richmond, VA)

"You ROCK, Deb Caletti! A book that talks about girls embracing their sexuality AND dealing with the crap that comes with just being female? All that wrapped in a completely dysfunctional family, suspense, danger, first love, good dogs, and becoming empowered? I could NOT put Girl, Unframed down – it is an entrancing, infuriating, enthralling book and, I don’t know about you, but it totally spoke truth to my teen years! Thank you, Deb!"

—Rene Kirkpatrick, The University Book Store (Seattle, WA)

"Sydney, the narrator of Girl, Unframed, frequently muses on the difference between being looked at and being seen. Well, to all the girls realizing what it means to become a woman in our world and the women who remember, Deb Caletti sees you. Practically every page has a passage that cuts to the core of the rage and shame, the thrill and disgust of coming into your own in a world that would much rather tell you what to be. Caletti packs so many poignant inner journeys into Sydney's story, she could be forgiven if not much else happened, but instead she has also given us a page-turning thriller with a palpable sense of dread emanating from the pages. If you're looking for empowerment that doesn't pander and righteous fury that doesn't lose hope, you've found your book."

—Sarah Holt, Left Bank Books (St. Louis, MO)

"Girl, Unframed is a timely, gripping read that deals with the complexities of female sexuality and societal expectations. Sydney is an engaging narrator whose desire for a successful summer fling is at odds with the unwanted out of town trip to spend the summer with her movie star mother. There, she finds herself caught up in the double standards of male and female behavior exemplified by her mother's most recent abusive boyfriend and the horror titles she used to love. Her retrospective recounting builds suspense as the reader is well aware of *something* coming but has to wait for the reveal. Sydney's questions about parental examples, the shaping of teen's sexuality, and society's expectations are relatable and add to the important topics Caletti discusses. Sure to appeal to readers of A Heart in a Body in the World. An engaging read that will spark important discussions."

—Gwendolyn Baltera, Buttonwood Books and Toys (Cohasset, MA)

"Sydney's story is a quietly thrilling coming of age."

—Johanna Albrecht, McIntyre's Books (Pittsboro, NC)

A teen girl’s summer with her mother turns sinister in this gripping thriller about the insidious dangers of unwanted attention, from Printz Honor medal–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 Syndey 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.

It’s unnerving, how beauty is complicated, and objects have histories, and you can be looked at without ever being seen. 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.

Female Torso, Kazimir Malevich, Crying Girl, Roy Lichtenstein, & Sleeping Nude, Pablo Picasso — **Female Torso,** Kazimir Malevich, **Crying Girl**, Roy Lichtenstein, & **Sleeping Nude**, Pablo Picasso

“There were lots of little girls who weren’t little anymore. Daddy’s girls, lost girls, harmed and lonely girls. Crying Girl. ”

Girl, Unframed is a loosely-based retelling of a true story: The murder of Johnny Stompanato, the husband of actress Lana Turner, by Lana’s daughter, Cheryl Crane, in 1958. It’s still considered a mystery what actually happened that night. I’d kept an article about it in my “book ideas” file for years, but finally, the need to write this book rose to the surface. Lana’s daughter was a teen at the time, and Lana (one of the biggest Hollywood stars then), was a sex symbol/femme fatale, so this gave me the groundwork for a lot of things I wanted to explore: objectification, mother-daughter relationships, sexual awakening, and the way internalized misogyny can play out through generations. Girl, Unframed was a way to merge a dark thriller with feminist themes.

After I began writing the book, I had an unexpected shock - my mind had been doing some unconscious magic. The story, the characters, and most definitely the setting had connections to my own life that I hadn’t seen. It was a twisting meld of past and present, and I suddenly realized why that article had been in my file for so long – there were similar themes to my own family history, going back generations. This book became personal in ways that I hadn’t anticipated, and putting it out into the world has been weirdly uncomfortable. As Syd says in the book, "History was everywhere, and you were looking right at it, even if you didn’t realize it.”

The Present… Locations in Girl, Unframed

The far side of Baker Beach, with only one nudist dog.

The Cliff House and Ocean Beach; Camera Obscura (photo credit: NoeHill.com); Sutro Bath Ruins

Nick’s Cove, and The Shack at Nick’s Cove (photo credit: Nick’s Cove Facebook Page); Baker Beach; the boat out to Alcatraz; the Labyrinth

A few words on that spectacular house… The house is a real one in Sea Cliff, built in 1925, and when I came across it, it was up for sale for fifteen million dollars (and considered a “fixer-upper.”) It belonged to real estate tycoon and art thief “Lucky” Luke Brugnara, and he kept millions of dollars of stolen art there before he was caught and jailed. One look at it, and I knew it was a setting I HAD to use.

The house; the stairwell; China Beach; the patio. All photos credited to: Sotheby’s International Realty.

“We reached China Beach as the tide crept in. It did come in fast, so fast. We stood at the bottom of the one hundred and four steps. We paused, and I saw Nicco’s profile, the way he looked toward the house above us. You could see it up there, even in the fog. ”

The Past…

Lana, Cheryl, and gangster Johnny Stompanato, 1958.

1906 earthquake and fire. The Cliff House in all its glory, circa 1900.

And some of my own history…

Both sides of my family have a long, long history in San Francisco. On my dad’s side: his grandparents fled the 1906 fire that came after the earthquake, carrying only their wedding photo, inspiration for the photo in the book. (See the real one, below.) They were longtime residents of the city and, later, the Bay Area, as we were until my family came to the Seattle area when I was ten.

And on my mother’s side: Also longtime residents of San Francisco and the Bay Area, my mother grew up in the city. The generations of women and men on her side held some of the similarities that surprised me while writing the book. I hadn't noticed until I was underway, but in each family, fictional and non, there was criminal activity, dangerous relationships, stolen objects hidden in San Francisco houses, intergenerational trauma, and narcissistic beauty…

My great grandmother and her third husband, the man I knew as my great grandfather, on the streets of San Francisco.

“But the women of my family going back generations - we were told lies about ourselves that we believed, and we’d even gone on to tell each other those same lies. I could maybe put an end to that particular plotline.”

“There were reasons, many reasons, to feel uncomfortable without knowing why. ”

House of stolen furs and lady bookies; trial coverage; my great grandfather (convicted, along with former Alcatraz Prisoner, George Miller, of the theft on the waterfront), and my great uncle (who was asked to help, but wasn’t charged).

Generations… Grandmothers, mothers, and daughters.

“I may not have had actual words for it right then, but I saw it. How men taught their sons how to be, and showed their daughters how much they were worth. How mothers could tell their daughters the truth about objects, if they knew it themselves. ”

The wedding photo that inspired the one in Girl, Unframed: The only possession my great grandparents on my father’s side saved in the 1906 fire. In real life, they remained married until her death.