This was a great book! I really enjoyed reading about Clara, and her struggles through high school as a student, musician, sister, daughter and as a teenager.
I felt this book was super well written for the character's age, the story was perfect. My past teenage heart ached for her in all the right places, and laughed and cried in all the others.
The relationship she has with her new stepmom was very relatable to me as this was also my story when I was a teen.
Great job, highly recommend it.

4/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

The book is a quick read. Though it is aimed at a young audience who are just hitting their teens. It will certainly be very appealing to them with a good message and the cute romance.

Girl, Unstrung links really nicely with Claire's previous novel unscripted but it works great as a standalone read too. It's a wonderful coming of age story that both young people and adults alike will find joy and satisfaction in reading.

Definitely the younger side of YA (or more correctly, actual YA) but very well written. I really liked that a book geared toward younger teens puts such a big focus on achievement, family, and learning from your challenges. The main character is definitely flawed but also very realistic, genuine, and felt very real. I really enjoyed the way the author explored complicated friend and family relationships, especially during teenage years.
There were a few reactions from characters that didn't really make sense to me but I couldn't really tell if that's because the characters are (rightfully) immature or the writing was a bit weird or forced for the sake of the plot.

You might think it's fun to grow up around Hollywood with semi-famous parents. You'd be wrong, and Clara Cassidy would be the first to tell you so.

She's fourteen, figuring out life with three siblings and a new stepmom, and navigating her freshman year at a stupid high school where she doesn't even want to be. She was supposed to be at art school by now.

It's fine, though, totally fine: she's going to practice her viola extra hard and get into LACHSA next year. She's definitely 100 percent focused and not even slightly going to get distracted by Tim, the sophomore Scrabble champion with the swoopy hair and the chin dimple. Nope. Not her.

A good coming-of age-book for Y.A. readers. Anyone who has ever had an overwhelming passion for something, such as Clara has for playing her viola, will be able to relate. Some important lessons about learning to balance ambition with caring about other people are learned.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an E-arc of this book in exchange of an honest review.

I'm sorry I really wanted to like this book because I love music and usually enjoy books set around it but this was a miss for me. Some of the things that I didn't enjoy were there's a lot of internal monologue telling rather than showing. She has siblings who are only ever mentioned along with their hobby (one of the sister is always reading,one is always dancing and one is just a little boy) and we don't know about their any other personality trait. She has barely talked with the love interest, who as Clara calls is "swoopy hair Tim" yet she still wants him whilst also hating him because she thinks he's using her for her semi famous actor parents so that he can meet other celebrities. Clara also seemed too conceited and arrogant to me. She came across as someone who thought they're better than everyone and was super unlikable as a main character. However, I do think that this story had potential and I would've liked it if there was more character development and better storytelling.

While some of us go through life rudderless, there are others who have a mission, a goal, a drive to do something and not let anything else get in the way. And that's the impetus behind this story.
It is interesting how we all can get so caught up in our own story that when our plans get derailed we are lost. The author did a great job portraying how we all have plans that go awry. Life goes on, maybe just in another direction. It is a lesson we can all learn from.

I liked a lot of things about GIRL, UNSTRUNG, but I feel like overall my review is going to be mixed.

One of the elements I loved were Clara’s relationships with her family members, especially her stepmom, Ebba. It’s complicated, emotional, and I felt like Clara actually grew the most as a person in the context of that relationship. It felt really real and rich to me.

I found myself wishing that she experienced similar development in her other relationships, though. Clara tended to be highly critical, and while that totally tracked for an overachieving musician, I felt like there were some points where her behavior became toxic. I found myself wanting those moments to be addressed in more than a passing way.

In the story, Clara lists her age as fourteen and a half, but she seemed older than that. It made me wonder about the decision to set her age there instead of bumping her up to fifteen.

That said, I appreciate that this book steps into the sort of dead zone between middle grade and young adult fiction. There are a few books with main characters at fourteen, but not tons. I think the book just felt a little bit divided to me on which age group it was meant to be for. The family relationships and pursuit of music as well as the first crush elements felt more like upper middle grade. But the obsession with sexy underwear and when to have sex felt more like themes you’d see in young adult lit.

I did really enjoy the descriptions of Clara’s passion for music and her ability, and her foray into the world of competitive Scrabble.

Like I said, there were a lot of things I liked in the book, but overall, kind of a mixed bag for me. I think readers who enjoy stories about musicians or blended families could find a lot to love here.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was given an eARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

Overall, I thought this book was cute. It not only dealt with music and having your first crush, but it also dealt with how to adapt to a new family situation. I really enjoyed reading this.

I’ve not read anything from this author before so I was a little bit hesitant going into this but overall I think I actually really like this it was Enjoyable and I think I’ll definitely read from this author again as I believe that the book was great it was well paced the characters were intriguing and in-depth the story was paced very well and overall I think it was really consuming as I read all in one sitting

Girl,unstrung by Claire Handscome.
You might think it's fun to grow up around Hollywood with semi-famous parents. You'd be wrong, and Clara Cassidy would be the first to tell you so.
This was a very good read. I liked the story. Clara was a good character. 4*.

I really loved the writing style of the book, and the story was just so good. It is a book that I would totally read again.

I really, really wanted to like this one. I enjoy coming-of-age young adult stories, and that's what I thought this would be. At the heart of the story is Clara, a freshman who is in a school she doesn't want to be in. She has famous parents and a semi-famous stepmom. How do we know? Because she talks about it constantly. She does have the struggle of trying to figure out if a boy likes her for her parents or if he actually likes her. Above everything though is Clara's obsession with getting into a performing arts school playing viola so she can one day get into Julliard.

The story itself was great - something happens to Clara's hand that throws all of her dreams of playing viola in a performing arts school and Julliard away, and she has to rediscover herself. Meanwhile, she is struggling to accept her stepmother, who has secrets of her own.

The parts of the story that had me struggling were Clara's thoughts. You know the old saying of "show don't tell"? This applies here, because for the first 75% of the book we were told. Everything. Someone would say something, and we would then immediately be pulled out of the scene with a whole page of Clara's rambling thoughts and back story to whatever was happening. If the last thing said was a question, by the time we got to the second character answering it, I had already forgotten what the question was because of the amount of information told to you in between the 2 lines. This happened throughout the book, but got better towards the end. I started to skip those lines and when I read just the dialogue, it became a much better story to read.

This was a really cute book. It follows a girl named Clara, she is 14 years old and plays the violins more sophisticated cousin, the viola. She comes from
a semi-famous family and it’s not as glamorous as it may seem. This book followers her journey as she tries to get accept to her dream high school LACHSA. This is a book that every age group would enjoy. It is well written and was a change of pace from other YA books.

This book was about a girl named Clara and her journey through her Freshman year of high school and trying to get into LACHSA while dealing with a whole host of feelings toward her family life, school life. I thought it was really different that for a lot of the book it focused on her love of the viola which I have never read something where that was a main focus of the book was that. I really liked Clara's development with her stepmother and how it wasn't instantaneous but happened slowly over the course of the book. While I did enjoy the book I found the main character to be quite self-absorbed a selfish which I get is the point but it was a little to much for me and she only developed and saw her mistakes right at the end of the book. There were a couple of typos that I could find but not enough to distract me from the book. Over all I found that I enjoyed the book but was not overly blown away with the content so I give it 3.5 stars rounding down to 3.

This book was brutal to read and I was unable to finish it. I tried to attribute my displeasure to the fact that this book was (or at least should) be intended for a younger audience. However, I often read YA/teen books and don’t often have this same problem.

I did not care for the relationship between the protagonist and the reader, and reading through the exposition was uncomfortable and sounded awkward/forced. “In case you’ve been living under a rock or something… I should probably explain what ___ is…” In result, scenes with dialogue did not flow naturally, and I could not get into deeper narrative aspects of the story.

I'm pretty sure I read a completely different version of this book than everyone else.

**This Review is Also Posted on Goodreads**

There will be mild spoilers throughout my review. They will NOT be tagged.

I don't even know where to start. Actually. That's not true. I'll start with the pacing and the quality of writing.

The pacing of this book is slow and tedious and boring. Clara never really does anything. Stuff just happens and she reacts to it. It's supposed to be a cute coming of age, but Clara starts the book being proviledged and naive and ends the book in the same place.

I actually want to address each paragraph from the synopsis, because it missells the book.

"You might think it's fun to grow up around Hollywood with semi-famous parents."

I wouldn't know since we spend little to no time around Hollywood. We're told that Dad is only a minor celebrity (in fact we're told multiple times that he's not even that famous) and Mom hardly makes an appearance in the story. Clara writes how everyone is obsessed with her because of her Dad but literally no one ever talks to her at school. She has no friends and she's probably considered the loser of the school.

"You'd be wrong, and Clara Cassidy would be the first to tell you so."

But Clare rarely tells us anything about living with an actor father. She tells he used to be popluar and he's stil acting and honestly aside from some general grumpiness at the start of the story, her 'anger' with her famous parents is literally never addressed (or even a thing).

"She's fourteen, figuring out life with three siblings and a new stepmom, and navigating her freshman year at a stupid high school where she doesn't even want to be. She was supposed to be at arts school by now."

Okay. But the three siblings have been her siblings the whole time. They're ot half-siblings or even step-siblings. So this is stupid. Also, her siblings hardly ever show up in the story except for Clara to tell us she hates them for one reason or another (one becuase she reads too much, another because she's a good dancer and the other because he's a little boy). The siblings are pretty much just filler at the dinner table and a reason for Clara to hate her step-mom for being a good step-mom to her siblings.

We spend next to no time at the school. Or in orchestra practice. Or really doing anything relevant at the school at all. We only meet the orchestra conductor in three scenes and two of those are just to set up Clara to prove him wrong and to be praised for proving him wrong (she wants to play in a talent show - teacher thinks the piece she picked in 'ambitious' - she plays it perfectly - teacher congratualtes her - we never see teacher or orchestra class again).

Art school. Good crap. This stupid art school. Apparently the only way to get to Julliard is to go to this stupid priviledged school in LA. I'm not even joking. Clara's entire LIFE will be ruined if she doesn't get in next year. (Yeah. I get it. She's 14. Everything is dramatic. Whatever.)

And the bulk of the problem with the synopsis:
"It's fine, though, totally fine: she's going to practice her viola extra hard and get into LACHSA next year. She's definitely 100 percent focused and not even slightly going to get distracted by Tim, the sophomore Scrabble champion with the swoopy hair and the chin dimple. Nope. Not her."

Clara does practice extra hard. To the point where she's harming herself. She is pretty focused. But Tim. Swoopy Hair Boy? He's in like 5 scenes. They've spoken to each other 2 times. Clara is convinced she's in love with him. Yeah. Love. Not a crush. Not a lust. LOVE. As in she wants to LOSE HER VIRGINITY TO HIM and bought lingere to do it, LOVE. (THIS IS AFTER TALKING TO HIM TWICE). All the while she is convinced he's only using her for her Hollywood connections. But that's okay. Because he's hot.

Tim shows up in MAYBE a dozen scenes total. They known pretty much nothing about each other. The few times Tim has tried to start a conversation with Clara she gets pissy and wishes he would shut up.

There is unnecessary (and unresolved) girl hate. A 'mean girl' shows up for I think maybe 3 total chapters. She and Tim flirt. Clara is jealous and glares at girl. Then she just poofs out of the story and we never see her again.

The most annoying part of the entire book is that Clara blames Swoopy Hair Boy for an accident and holds a grude for pretty much the entire second half of the book. She never accepts her role in the accident. She refuses to forgive him. Yet still thinks about kissing him. But she hates him. Because of an accident that he had a VERY small part in.

Clara of course gets her Happily Ever After - For Now.


Let's talk about all THE PLOT ERRORS

In chapter ten. We get all the boring background about how Clara LOVES words and was obsessed with spelling bees but she lost at the regionsal as missed nationals and still holds a grudge.

Cool story right? Some background about Clara and how she's so smart.

Well. YOU GET THE SAME STORY WORD FOR WORD in chapter 43.

Since we're on the topic of how much Clara LOVES words. She interally monologues about how she's smarter than everyone else and uses big words. But she never uses big words. When she finally uses a slightly obscure word (viscous) I don't care.

We're told Mom and Dad can't attend The Nutcracker together because of animosity (I guess) but they're perfectly okay with sitting together at Clara's talent show/showcase/recital thing at school a few months earlier.

Clara is also obsessed with being neat and orderly and keeps a bullet journal. But she only uses it for the front page where she keep her life check list. She uses it again toward the end of the story. Why even bother. Why not just have a post-it on her mirror. Stop telling she's organized. Or smart. SHOW ME.

The Talent Show goes from being a student arts showcase to a recital over the course of a few chapters.

The ski trip to Colorado (mentioned in chapter 13) ends up being in Alta, Utah (in chapter 27).

Clara says that trumpet players are shy like mice (she's never met a trumpet player in her life before)

Randomly in the middle of chapter 43 Dad's name (Dan) is randomly changed to Ethan.

In chapter 1 Clara can't read the map of the high school to find her orchestra class. But when she's in London she manages to memorize the entire tube map and knows exactly where they are going before they get there.


Let's Talk About CLARA (and how annoying she is for the entire book)

Clara is 14. I don't remember much about being 14, but I'm sure I was insufferable. Honestly. Most teens are idiots. Clara, however, wins the title of the most insufferable protagonist I've read in a long time.

Her entire personality is being mad her her step-mom. That at obsessed about Swoopy Hair Boy.

Any time her siblings do something good (one is a dancer and danced very well at a recital) Clara reacts angrily. Or passively, she dismisses her sister's dancing MULTIPLE times. She thinks the sister who reads all the time is boring. Yet she also resents them because they have a healthy relationship with step-mom. Clara doesn't want a relationship with step-mom and constantly berates her and snips at her for doing normal things.

Clara is jealous of her (supposed) BFF who got into the performing arts school (for acting) and doesn't want to talk to her. The only times BFF makes an appearance is to stir up drama for Clara. BFF gets no resolution. We never see Clara cheer her on. Or even appreciate her friendship.

Clara is obsessed with Swoopy Hair Boy (Tim). But only when she's not resenting him for wanting to use her to meet celebrities (THAT SHE NEVER MEETS IN THE ENTIRE BOOK). She mentally accuses him of using her. Of only wanting to get close to her dad (eww). But she still hopes to lose her virginity to him after speaking actual words to him on two occasions.

After the accident. Clara tells us she hates Swoopy but continues to lust after him. She imagines all these future scenarios where they're together. Then she's back to hating him and never wanting to see him again. This is never really resolved. They never talk about the accident. Clara never apologizes for her terrible attitude toward him. They end up in a relationship (I guess).

Clara is supposed to be a bit self-absorbed. But the problem is she admits she has a privilidged life. But instead of thinking about it, considerig it. She just moves on. She NEVER stops to actually think about what her famous parents lifestyle has done for her (or she does it in passing and still never really acknowledges it). It makes her come off as unlikeable and unrelateable. She can see others have proviledge but can't accept her own.

HOW COULD THIS STORY HAVE BEEN IMPROVED?

Start with Clara and her first orchestra rehearsal. Show us her love of music and how dedicated she is. Show her working hard to try to get earn a first chair position (this could have been done easily by having anyone challenge the player who sits in front of the. The one who plays better takes the better chair.). This would have given us a chance to get to know Clara and some of her fellow musicians. Give her a chance to bond with people at school instead of being a loser loner.

Have Tim try to strike up a few conversations. She can blow him off, thinking he's only interested in her adjacent fame. The more he presists the more she gives in until they've established some kind of 'friendship'. Then he can invite her to the ski trip.

Have a build up of a group of girls who don't like Clara (maybe they're jealous or just mean. I don't care). Then all the mean girl stuff doesn't come out of the blue. It can even be someone who is also friends with Tim and is jealous that he's paying attention to Clara.

Have Tim teach Clara how to play Scrabble (now they share a common interest). Maybe Clara isn't interested at first. Maybe she likes it because she's supposed to have a big vocabulary.

Show more scenes where Clara turns down hanging out with new friends to practice. Or turning down other invitations to practice. Right now her life is just empty. She has no friends and never has to decide between friends or viola. Give her some conflict. Give her 'friends' a reason to be a bit resentful because she's always picking viola over them. JUST GIVE CLARA SOME FRIENDS.

After the accident Clara can feel hopeless and alone. She's pushed her friends away. She can't practice. She doesn't know what to do. Instead of this fake conflict with Tim it can be a deeper conflict. She's pushed him away too. Etc.

I'd honestly cut the entire trip to London. It was pointless. It was stupid. It honestly served no purpose but to wrap up loose ends from the previous book.

As Clara spends more time healing she can try to patch things up with her friends. She can find a new hobby. She can spend more time with her siblings. Eventually her attitude can shift about step-mom and her family. She can find joy in familytime and sharing her siblings interests. She learns that life isn't about pushing yourself to extremes and that she needs balance.

Then she can go to the Scrabble tournament to APOLOGIZE to Tim, not complete against him. He can be resistant to her apology. Maybe even offended that she thought so poorly of him.

Then he can come to some orchestra thing she's in where she's just happy to play and not obsess over being perfect.

They can have their heart-to-heart and after their first date the kiss won't feel so squiky (since they've talked to each other over the course of the entire school year and actually know things about each other).

Anyway. There is a TON of potential here. But it never came togther in a satisfying way. I didn't enjoy Clara's way of telling the story (way too much description and never enough dialogue). The chapters felt choppy and jumped too much from chapter to chapter. All the characters were a bit too 'cardboard cut out' for me. And I didn't feel Clara grew enough for me by the end of the book.

Girl, Unstrung is a contemporary YA book about Clara, a high school freshman who has three siblings and semi-famous parents in her blended family. She auditioned as a violist to attend LACHSA, the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, but did not make it in. Clara is determined to get into LACHSA next year, since the school only auditions rising freshmen and sophomores, but first she has to make sure she doesn't get distracted by a cute guy at her current high school. The book follows Clara's point-of-view.

I was excited to see that she played the viola, which doesn't get as much love as its more sophisticated cousin, the violin (as Clara describes it). The book seems to be set in the same universe as Handscombe's adult romance Unscripted, which occurs before the events of Girl, Unstrung. I find it interesting that, while keeping with romance as a theme, Handscombe has spanned genres between YA and adult fiction with this universe.

Clara definitely acts like a typical high schooler, so her voice felt authentic to me. She has the typical self-centeredness of a teenager, but also checks herself from time to time and calls herself out on this issue. This is most present when she is trying to figure out how she feels and acts around her new step-mother.

Clara's main growth arc is about her obsessiveness with the viola and her struggle with feeling like she is "enough." Her entire family is full of artists; her mom and dad are both actors and her step-mother acts and teaches ballet. She wants to get into Julliard someday (where here dad went to college), and she believes that the only way to get there (as she notes in her bullet journal) is to get into LACHSA first. She practices her viola for three or more hours a day at her peak.

While I enjoyed reading this book, I do think it may have been a little too long. The chapters themselves are fairly short, and potato-chip-y. However, there are some recaps within the book where Clara mentions something that was said ten or so chapters before that I don't think needed to be rehashed. That being said, Handscombe is wonderful at writing prose and I'm excited to read more from her.

I received an advanced ebook copy of this book for review via NetGalley, but all opinions contained herein are my own. I really enjoyed Handscombe's prose in this novel, but even for an advanced reader copy, this sure had a ton of formatting and grammatical errors. I sincerely hope that they are fixed before the book is released on November 23, 2021.

This again was not my usual type of read but I did still enjoy it and wanted to keep on reading. A well written book, well done!