i loved this book!! maisie was incredibly relatable and i couldn't help but empathise with her on a very deep level. i didn't realise going into this that maisie is bisexual and eli is a trans man! i absolutely adored every character in this and i can't wait to go back and read the book published about maisie's childhood. can't wait to see what sabrina kleckner does next!

2.5 stars. dnf-ing at 18 percent. It actually had a pretty good start, but I did not agree with some things brought into the story, so I decided not to finish it. My review will be published on June 11, on both Goodreads and fable.

Thank you for letting me read this book.

Watching Maisie learn about herself and discover what makes her unique while trying to make new friends and try new things was a ride but an interesting one.

"Artists are nostalgic."

I loved reading this one. Very relatable, too, even if you are only an artist or in the photography niche. It's about taking a courageous step and being willing to experiment, and putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations.
Maisie wants to challenge herself by learning different things, saying yes more, and self-discover her own style and self rather than copying her family's art style. She moved from New York to London and met new challenges and new relationships. I love that she tries hard. She has another motivation besides self-discovery as well. She doesn't want to look like a loser to her friend Alicia, who is winning at her university.
It's not easy. It's much easier to crave and run home because it's familiar.
Part of the book deals with her brother's relationship and how his actions were relevant to her growing up.
Very sweet, light YA. Makes me want to do more photography this summer.

I wish I had a large poster of this cover.

Sabrina Kleckner nailed the feeling of being a college freshman. All those away from home, parents aren't here to tell you what to do, trying to figure out what the hell you are doing with your life feelings? They are all here. I felt 18 again and that was a loooooooooong time ago.

Not to mention we've got a bit of family drama. So the angst, the coming of age, the drama, *chefs kiss*. Thank to Flux for an early copy.

My interest kind of deflated with this one, and I don't think I can pinpoint why. The characters were compelling, I did like the uni setting, the plot was fine. But by like 60% I was ready for it to end. The casual inclusion of a trans love interest was done wonderfully, and I wish we'd seen more of him and his relationship with Maisie. I get that this is not a romance and I liked the different subplots well enough to not want to sacrifice them for more page time for this guy, but I guess I'd rather he had been taken along on more than one side adventure.

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4/5)
A heartfelt coming-of-age journey wrapped in paint, photography, and personal growth—The Complex Art of Being Maisie Clark is a sweet, introspective YA read.

Sabrina Kleckner delivers a soft, emotionally layered story about art, identity, and the scary—but necessary—process of stepping outside your comfort zone. Maisie’s struggle to find her creative voice while navigating life in a new country is both relatable and tender, and the quiet charm of her journey makes this book a cozy, satisfying read.

🎨 What worked:
Maisie’s inner world. Her doubt, fear of failure, and longing to be original in a family of artists make her a protagonist you can’t help but root for.

London setting + flatmate dynamics. The fish-out-of-water discomfort is real but never overdone, and the clash of personalities brings some subtle humor.

Slow-build friendship-to-something-more with Eli. Snarky, talented, and a bit guarded—Eli is the perfect artistic foil for Maisie, and their photography project leads to genuine, vulnerable moments.

Themes of family, grief, and healing. The emotional core deepens when a crime back home shakes old wounds loose, and Kleckner handles these moments with thoughtful care.

Queer rep. Calum and Benji’s relationship adds warmth and charm, offering a healthy sibling bond and meaningful support for Maisie.

🖼️ Why it’s 4 stars (not 5):
Pacing is gentle, maybe too much so. Some readers might find the story slow in places, especially early on.

Maisie’s growth is subtle. While realistic, the resolution might feel a little understated for those looking for big, sweeping emotional payoffs.

🎯 Final thoughts:
The Complex Art of Being Maisie Clark is a lovely, character-driven YA about figuring out who you are when everything feels uncertain. It’s perfect for fans of Fangirl or Late to the Party who love introspective protagonists, creative self-discovery, and quiet emotional resonance.

A solid 4/5—sweet, sincere, and artistically inspiring.

The Complex Art of Being Maisie Clark by Sabrina Kleckner was a wonderfully beautiful and messy novel about a girl named Maisie who’s trying to find herself when going off to university.

I loved all the characters in this book, they all felt so real and lively to me. I loved the humour and the writing was fun to read. I felt like it also captured Maisie’s awkwardness perfectly and without giving me any second hand embarrassment. All the relationships Maisie had were also lovely to read about, each one was so vastly different from each other and helped her develop as a character and person throughout the book. The struggles she went through with her friends and family as well as seeing her work through them was all really interesting to read about. The way Kleckner wrote Maisie’s emotions really drew me into the book as well.

This book is technically the sequel to another where we follow a much younger Maisie. I haven’t read it yet but I definitely will after loving this one so much!

ARC Review | The Complex Art of Being Maisie Clark by Sabrina Kleckner
⭐️⭐️⭐️,5 /5

Huge thanks to NetGalley and the author for letting me read this one early! This is a short but thoughtful coming-of-age story (around 230 pages) centered on Maisie, an art student navigating the messy, complicated journey of figuring out who she really is.

Maisie’s internal world takes center stage — her insecurities, doubts, hopes, and identity struggles (including LGBTQ+ themes, which were refreshing to see). While there’s a sprinkle of romance with Eli, the cool, calm, slightly sarcastic love interest, the story is much more about self-discovery than swoony moments.

What I really liked? The art + photography project Maisie and Eli work on, which had me reflecting on how we present ourselves to the world vs. how we see ourselves. It’s a concept that feels very relevant, especially in today’s social media age.

What didn’t fully click for me? As someone in my mid-20s, I sometimes found Maisie’s internal conflicts a bit juvenile — I wanted to shake her and say, “Just say what you think, girl!” But I imagine younger readers (18–20s) will strongly connect with her struggles.

Overall, it’s a cozy, character-driven read perfect for anyone who enjoys stories about growing up, learning to stand in your own truth, and figuring out where you fit. I’m definitely curious to check out more from Sabrina Kleckner!

Five words to sum it up:
Introspective, artistic, emotional, youthful, relatable.

Huge thanks to NetGalley & North Star Editions💌

We get to know our MC Maisie, 18 years old girl who loves art but hates her art style and tries to make new friends away from her home, at london.

It’s really nice that we’re talking about getting to know new people and making new friends bc I think a lot of people have problem with that (or maybe it’s just me) but anyway - figuring out who you are, what do you like and what you don’t like, what do you prefer and what you don’t prefer is hard, especially at the teenage years. Someone knows right away, someone’s really struggling with their identity - it’s really different. I really like that theme of this book is this. Finding who you really are. 🥹💗

📝And the writing? So easy to
read, and one of the reasons is because it’s not like chapter one, chapter two and boom! she has three new friends. I’m glad it’s written in kind of realistic way about the problems that may be a bit silly, but lot of people are struggling with them all the time.

A gorgeous gorgeous novel about figuring out how to be completely and totally yourself. Maisie and her desire to try to push herself out of her comfort zone even to the point of uncomfortableness was truly resonant. Every character had me laughing, smiling and at many points absolutely sobbing. Eli and his black catness, Maisie and her feral corgi nature. A must read for everyone trying to figure themselves out.

Thank you Netgalley and Flux for this arc, I really enjoyed this book, it felt very nostalgic to me and like something I could imagine reading as an early twenty something or younger! Maisie felt like a character I could relate to, she was flawed in her own ways but who isn’t? I can’t wait to pick this up in person and the first book as the arc digitally for this was a little hard to read.

Thank you to Flux and NetGalley for this free e-book ARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts are my own.

Maisie Clark is ready to find her own voice. After working at her family’s portrait shop her whole life, she’s a talented painter, but she has one big problem: her portraits look exactly like her dad’s. On a quest to expand her artistic horizons, Maisie enrolls in art school abroad determined to explore new artistic avenues and discover her own style. But Maisie quickly learns her journey might be more difficult than she anticipated as she struggles through new mediums, encounters awkward roommates, and accidentally causes a classmate to break his ankle. Not to mention the simmering family tension between her and her older brother Calum, who ran away from home as a teen.

This coming of age story was immersive and sweet. I loved reading about Maisie’s artistic expression and her interiority of discovering her adult identity. There’s a minor romance plot, but much of the story follows Maisie’s personal journey and her journey to reconcile her family and their past baggage. I would definitely recommend if you’re in the mood for a YA story or themes exploring art and self expression.

What a delight of a book! I read it in one day and had a great time. It's heartwarming, touching, humorous, and very human. The characters are quirky, flawed, and down to earth, it was quite easy to connect with them because of that. Yes, sometimes they might have been annoying, but aren't we all like that sometimes?

The plot, while being simple and realistic, is also engaging. Now that I have gotten to know Maisie, her brother, Benji, and Eli, I am curious to know more about this family and their background. I'll try to find time to read the first book about Maisie soon, and I hope the author writes about these characters again. Exploring Maisie and Eli's evolving relationship, especially in the context of topics connected to LGBTQ, would certainly be very interesting! We need more books like these in the times that we live in right now.

I also found it quite delightful that all of Maisie's family members come from artistic backgrounds. Being a creative myself, I connected to that. The book explored intriguing and important questions about art style, what it means to be influenced by other artists, and finding one's voice.

It's a great YA book that can also be enjoyed by adults (well, I definitely enjoyed it). Thank you to the author, publishers, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book. My review is based solely on my honest opinion, and is written with the utmost respect.

I wanna thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read the book in advance.
This was such a cute coming of age story. Maisie is a relatable character, what she did (moving to London) is something I'd love to have the guts to do.
I liked the family, LOVE Benji and Eli they are the sweetest.
Like that we see her developments through school as well as her personal growth.

First of all, thank you North Star Editions for the ARC I got from Netgalley. Nonetheless, this shall be a completely honest review.

I feel bittersweet about this book. There were parts I actually deeply enjoyed, some that even got me a bit emotional, but there was also a lot that bothered me.
In my opinion, the story definitely pick up once you pass the 50% mark, and from this point onward, I found that the things that I didn’t like were either less present, or I had gotten more into the flow of the story and I perceived them a bit less.

My first critic would be that it does read quite a bit more like a Middle Grade book than the [Romance & YA] that it was advertised as, at least from my point of view. I know Young Adult has gotten a bit all over the place in the last few years, but rather than the officials demands of each genres, it’s the writing makes me think of one category over the other. I would agree that the themes explored throughout the book are indeed veered toward finding yourself and your purpose in life, but there was something in the way it was handled that felt slightly.. younger?

Personally I think not only is the cover not helping—feels very similar to books I would pick up in primary school—, but I would say the character of Maisie Clark herself feels younger than her age. Throughout the book, I did not believe that Maisie was 18 years old, even thought it was specified quite a few times. Her personality, and I do believe this is again a victim of the writing style, kept making me imagine her as a 16 years old. (Mind you, she turns 19 years old 30% through the book.) A lot of her reactions to the different situations we face are quite childish; which actually does make sense in a way since a part of her seems stuck at a couples of childhood times in her life, but it does not feel ‘on purpose’ by the author—in my opinion—, and more so something that happened. As most of the story, it develops to be less intense as we go, but even then I only saw her as a recently-turned 18 years old by the end.

The tone of the book is also is a bit confusing for me, as it reads almost awkward sometimes, with the short sentences and the way it nearly seems like a journal entry. There is a few instances where the character speak directly to us, the reader, and basically every time it threw me off. This is of course, all personal preferences, but I do enjoy when it is more consistent in what it tries to do. Had the character constantly referred to me, I probably would have dropped the book early on. As I said earlier, I either got used those more pointed moments, or they happened less once you reach deeper into the book, and I am not sure how I feel if it is the second option; in this case, why include it at all.

Part of what made it feels a bit younger too, is this feeling of stepping into yourself but with shoes that doesn’t quite fit yet that—I personally feels—comes with being in high school. The fact that the entire book is spent in university, therefore, was a bit stark for me. The character tend to try to give more meaning to things than they necessarily have—and I say this as a graduated art student—and this really build up this self-discovery journey in an almost.. exaggerated way? I would understand if she tried to tell something in a way that would make it seems deeper as to bullshit her art teachers, who didn’t do that in art school, but she did seems to truly believe it was like a grand-discovery. All of this, for me at least, really kept driving me toward a book set in high school with a main character around 16 years old, rather than the university student we were actually following.

It is actually quite disappointing, as I think the writer brought forwards some really interesting concepts, but I’m not sure the execution was always the best direction to tackle it. For example—without going too specific—, I really really loved the concept of the photo project they work on. I was disappointed when a lot of what would have been interesting with it was kind of pushed aside in the moment, and the fact that she kept dramatizing the very concept slowly crept on my nerves. It does end up coming back later, in a similar way I wished it would be explored, but I do feel like it was somewhat pushed to the side, while it was a perfect metaphor for the entire book.

I will say, once I got used to the flows of the writing and the bit of disappointment, I did find myself to be enjoying the experience. It will not be my favorite book of the year, but the characters were endearing, and I found myself rooting for them. I even, almost, shed a few tears. I loved Benji, deeply enjoyed Callum, really liked Eli’s character, and quite enjoyed the few extra characters who—even thought they were not mentioned—had a big personality and made their mark on my memory of the story.

The queer representation somewhat took me by surprise, it is always quite heartwarming when it is simply something that is part of a character, rather than a whole thing. I found that the trans character was handled in a very respectful manner, and that even thought it was not all he was, his trans identity was treated as a part of him. Sometimes, I find that writers can fall down a slippery slope of simply writing queer characters as if they are not, in an effort to not treat them differently. It was not the case here. I do wish we had spend a bit more time on the brother backstory, but reading a few reviews it seems this book is actually not the first book about this family, and that the first one was around his story, so I’ll let it slide.

Talking about the brother, I did really enjoy the—somewhat fucked up—sibling dynamic. The representation of how a situation affected the both of them in a different way, and how they both handle their trauma was done quite well, in my opinion. The way they were two sides of a coin, in a lot of different way, and were dealing with the situations coming to them was definitely interesting. I do see how some people could perhaps get angry at the lack of communication, but as someone who as communicating their emotions, especially surrounding moments in my life that are closer to my heart, I could not bully them for it. I thought it was a good example of Fight VS Flight, and how—in a relationship—someone who’s Avoidant can make someone who’s Anxious even worse, and vice versa. Very relatable, in my opinion.

Maybe surprising, although considering my personality maybe not, but Callum is actually the character I could visualize the best. What an awkward man. Like he even has a voice in my head! This is extremely rare. But also he’s so funny I fear: "You cannot expect I will take all, or even most, of your ideas. While I find them amusing, they are generally unreasonable."

Actually I will also give it to the author, the book was actually quite funny. I found myself openly laughing a few times, and giggling here and there. Now is it because I have the humor of a middle grader, this I do not know.

To finish, I do believe the acknowledgement part confirms where most of my problems with the earlier section of the book stand, and also my hesitation toward the writing style. I do love when author try new things, and I’m glad she enjoyed her experience, but I do stay confident in my opinion. I think the book needed maybe a bit more work in the earlier section, as the writer seems confused as well as the character; in the end, however, I did have a good time, and I smelled through the whole epilogue. It was very cute.

The review will be posted on Storygraph throughout the week. I apologize if there's any errors or discrepancies in this version, as I'm fresh out of the book and it is currently 4am.

It is apparently a sequel to another book in the series, so I'm definitely missing the context. Even disregarding this fact, I was hoping to like this as a fun light read, but something in the writing style and/or formatting is off putting, so I had to stop at ~10%. I'm sure there are readers for it — but I'm not the one.

I had the pleasure of receiving an ARC for the first book of this series as well and I completely fell in love with Masie, Callum and Benji, so I was delighted to spend more time with the characters. This was a thoroughly enjoyable continuation to Masie's story and I really enjoyed how it was aged up a little in a way that allowed the author to delve into more complex (no pun intended) topics. I recommend reading the two, however, this can also be enjoyed as a standalone.

In this coming-of-age story, Maisie navigates the challenges of finding her creative voice, adapting to a new city, and unraveling intricate family ties. Set against the vivid backdrop of London, the story weaves emotionally rich relationships, especially between Maisie, her brother, and his boyfriend, offering authentic and heartfelt LGBTQ+ representation. With relatable characters, artistic exploration, and themes of growth and belonging, this story is a must-read for anyone drawn to journeys of self-discovery.
Thank you to NetGalley and North Star Editions / Flux for the ARC.

I find this book to be more of a coming of age than anything. There’s some teen romance, comedy, and drama. I like how the FMC had the try new things list. At eighteen, I think that’s a really good idea. If I was younger, I think I could relate to this book.