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.

3,75☆|5

This book is weird; it is messy, really funny somehow, and so not what I usually read and enjoy. And yet it was good and a nice read.

Here we follow Maisie Clark, an 18-year-old art student from New York who's starting college in London. Maisie, who wants to change who she is. So she goes out of her comfort zone. Maybe too much. And we follow her and also her brother, who ran away when she was a child, and her strange roommate, who wants to drop drinks at people's heads from her window, and that one boy who somehow tripped on her as she was sitting on the stairs and who wanted to go to work so badly even though his ankle was definitely in bad shape.

And let me tell you, I liked this book somehow way more than I was expecting. The characters felt lovable, the writing was funny, and the general book felt like a breath of fresh air. I really enjoyed the relationship between Maisie and Eli (the one guy who tripped), and I just adored Eli in general. That's my darling right there. And Benji!! He had such a unique style; I loved it very much.

Although I liked it, this book has flaws, even though they're mostly minor ones. First, the characters didn’t really feel like their age, but mostly younger, which is okay. But I'd say that this book is undoubtedly on the youngest side of the YA genre, which is okay, just not what I was expecting. Secondly, I fear that this book was a bit too short; I would have really liked getting 100 more pages with the characters, as some elements felt resolved a bit fast and lacked development.

So if you want a messy little coming of age with a little romance and art, this one could be great for you!! Thank you to Netgalley and North Star Editions for sending me an e-arc. This one goes out on June 10th :).

Reading "The Complex Art of Being Maisie Clark" became an absolutely wonderful experience for me. This novel offers a universal story of self-discovery that connects with both artists and photographers and people dealing with life's complexities.

Maisie embarks on a bold journey from New York to London where she challenges herself to discover her personal artistic identity instead of repeating her family's artistic path. The story follows her journey toward self-knowledge while she faces the double challenge of chasing her friend Alicia's success. Throughout the book, the author demonstrates how Maisie resists the urge to revert to familiar territory which enhances the impact of her personal development.

The book's examination of friendship dynamics stands as one of its most valuable elements. Among the characters, Benji stands out as my favorite person. The book provides a comfortable reading experience through its relatable content that left me with a smile while inspiring my creative self. The story stands as a heartfelt YA book that readers should definitely explore to experience its emotional depth.

Publication Details:
- Name of Publication: _minireads_ (my Bookstagram)
- Run Date: may 12, 2025
- Link to Review: https://www.instagram.com/_minireads_?igsh=cjI2MzRtZzAxdmZo&utm_source=qr

This book was such a refreshing read. Maisie’s voice felt super real—awkward, funny, and honest in that way that makes you instantly connect with her. I loved how it explored friendships and the weird in-between stage of figuring out who you are. One of my favorite parts was the relationship between Calum and Benji—it was soft, sweet, and added a lot of heart to the story without being overdone.

The pacing dipped a little in the middle, but overall, it was emotional, relatable, and full of moments that made me smile. A great read if you're into character-driven stories with a lot of heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and North Star Editions / Flux for the e-ARC of this title to read and review. I don't know if this is *quite* a full 4-star for me, but I'm rounding up because I really enjoyed my reading experience. I own the middle grade book "The Art of Running Away," by Sabrina Kleckner, and I didn't realize that story follows the younger version of these characters. That's SUCH an interesting premise, because "The Complex Art of Being Maisie Clark," isn't exactly a *sequel*, but it's a look at these aged-up characters at a different stage of their life, for a totally different reading audience. (Though, I think anyone at all with the interest could read either or both of these books!)

Just-entering-college is such a specific time and theme for YA, because it's really bridging a genre gap, but the themes are super relatable for anyone who's been this age (college or not.) Maisie's trying to find her own style, both in the art she creates and her fashion sense/style/how she presents herself to the world. Her family dynamics are loving but complicated, and she feels like she may be limited by the art world she's been in for her whole life, so she wants to go big and push herself out of every comfort zone at once. I love that she's trying to move to a new country, make all new friends, wear bizarre hair/makeup/clothes, and take classes in subjects she's terrible at. It's both fun to read, and also a great way to see her learning-by-failing (and deciding which parts of her "old" self area actually worth keeping around!)

I do think there are several meandering lulls in the story, where the plot could really pick up steam and then just... doesn't? I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll be vague there. Throughout, I feel like enough conflicts and diversions are introduced to keep the reading exciting, but they don't really advance the plot significantly or result in any specific growth/change (beyond being part of Maisie's own growth journey, if that makes sense.) Not even in the cliffhanger sense, just a lingering kind of unfinished issue. But I also feel this way about the ending overall - there are a lot of moments throughout the book, including nearing the end, that could really explode into a dynamic ending, and I did feel like the last chapter rushes and just suddenly ends.

DNF at 8%

Something about this book just doesn't vibe with the mood I'm in. Plus, found out this is a sequel to a Middle Grade book which I hadn't read, so it kind of felt like I was missing something. It seems like a fun, quirky read. Just not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

This was a beautiful coming of age novel that revolves around the diversity and vibrancy of life in London, and the complicated, complex inner workings of one teen girl's mind following the aftermath of a big trauma, going into a new chapter in her life. Maisie is less than perfect, but who is as a teen? Only 18, at that. The complexities of figuring out who you want to be, and the pressure of doing that while you're young is very real, and very much delved into, and I think it's a very important topic to take note of. There's themes of finding yourself, of struggling with abandonment, of trying to be your true authentic self even when you feel like you have no one else who wants you for that authentic self. It's obvious there's a story to Maisie's past, especially revolving around her brother who is 10 years her senior. I found out there was actually another book that precedes this one, but I feel like the story explored enough of her past and the feelings she still carries that I didn't feel lost while reading. The characters felt fleshed out and real. Flawed, surely, but real. It felt like the side characters had enough time and space to not feel like they were taking up the spotlight but also to not feel as if they were stagnant and unimportant to the story, or for them to have just showed up once only to be seen never again.

A very bittersweet book, but one id happily recommend and read again.

A sweet and heartfelt YA. This book is full of good kids trying to do their best and in that regard it reminded me a bit of heart stopper in that way. I genuinely felt deeply moved at different places and I was rooting really really hard for the heroine.

Rating: 3.5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Sabrina Kleckner’s The Complex Art of Being Maisie Clark offers a thoughtful and heartfelt exploration of identity, creativity, and the complexities of growing up. ✨ Set against the vibrant backdrop of London , the novel follows 18-year-old Maisie as she strives to carve out her own artistic path, distinct from her family’s expectations.

Kleckner captures the emotional challenges of emerging adulthood with honesty and care. Maisie’s relationships — particularly her evolving bond with Eli, and the healing journey with her brother Calum and his boyfriend Benji — add both tension and warmth to her story. ❤️‍🩹 The representation of LGBTQ+ themes is handled with authenticity and sensitivity, enriching the novel’s themes of acceptance and self-expression.

While the emotional moments are strong, the pacing occasionally felt uneven , and some side characters could have been more fully fleshed out. Still, Maisie’s journey toward embracing her own artistic identity is inspiring, honest, and deeply relatable.

Thank you to Sabrina Kleckner and Flux Books for providing an early copy of this novel! I’m grateful for the opportunity to read and review it.

I thought this was a cute little YA STORY , I never read anything like it but Maise Clark has some decisions she wanted to make by leaving her home time but unfortunately she was push out of her uncomfortable zone and struggles to connect with her best friend that hated everything she did . Her best friend wasnt afraid to point out her mistake as she try to follow through ever thing. She do

This was a very cute and nice read. Perfect for teenagers who want to explore arts and a coming of age story

i tried to like it but it just wasnt my cup of tea. pacing was great, story telling was nice too but i just couldnt get in to it!!