I read this in two sittings. This was a really timely and important read that I will be recommending to my students.

Woah this was...a lot. A book following 3 characters who seem separate at first but their storylines come together. Q is struggling in the aftermath of being sexually assaulted by star rower Colin. Charlotte's a ballet dancer dating another guy on the rowing team. Max is a science nerd who someone ends up as the Cox on the rowing team, completely changing his social status. This book is dark, exploring trauma, rape culture and misogyny. A lot of the adults are useless. The boys and men are awful (bar a select few). My heart broke for the characters. They're not perfect - Charlotte and Max both make some pretty awful mistakes. But it felt real - it was good character development. Overall a hard read but had some great messages.

This book tackles the contagious nature of toxic masculinity at an elite boarding school while exploring rape culture.
It is extremely well written and I could not put it down.

Excellent book dealing with SA and rape in a YA book. The writing style was great and accessible. It was a great book by any standards but especially for YA.

‘The Sharp Edge of Silence’ is one of those books that really reminds me how powerful the YA genre can be in tackling difficult topics of conversation head on. Rosenblum handles the concept of rape culture and the lasting effects of toxic masculinity so so well because although the subject matter was difficult to read and at times incredibly emotion, ‘Sharp Edge’ was a book I couldn’t put down.
I really appreciated the way that Rosenblum flicks their focus between female and male characters and their experiences at the elite boarding school; for me this gave far more realistic and varied viewpoints of the way toxic masculinity can be viewed and often ignored on a daily basis.
At the heart of this story is Quinn who is trying to handle the devastating assault she experienced at the end of the semester. She has now bravely returned but has to watch on as the boy who hurt her continues to do exactly what he wants to because he is held apart in the integrated hierarchy of the school. The helplessness that Quinn feels and also to a certain degree Max and Charlotte is spot on and Rosenblum conveys the evolution of each of these characters perfectly across the story arc. I found real beauty in the ways in which the other characters step up for Quinn whilst Quinn provides them the bravery to stand up to the expected norms of the system, and call out those who encouraged such toxicity for so long.
I loved this book so much and just really appreciate Rosenblum for putting this story out in the world; it needs to be read right now.

The Sharp Edge of Silence is a powerful YA novel about rape culture and surviving sexual abuse.

Main protagonist Q is a fantastic character: vulnerable, resilient and brave. While she is able to accept that she was the victim of rape (and she has a support network who unquestioningly believe her and reassure her that she is in no way to blame for what happened), she struggles to move on. Simply surviving starts to take a huge emotional and physical toll on her. Her story is a thought-provoking examination of how to support victims of sexual assault in a culture that so often refuses to hold the perpetrators accountable. It is not enough to 'believe women', however important a start that may be.

Through the perspectives of the other two main protagonists, Charlotte and Max, Rosenblum explores the ways in which rape culture is embedded into school life, and how we must make a conscious effort to challenge it. You don't need to have been to an elite boarding school like Lycroft Phelps to recognise the social dynamics at play: despite the extreme privilege on display, it still makes for a neat microcosm of the world at large.

There is a fair amount of prose that could have been cut back, and in some respects the plot doesn't really kick in until about halfway through. But I appreciated how Rosenblum creates space for some interesting character development and a nuanced exploration of her subject.

Smart and sensitive, The Sharp Edge of Silence is an important YA read.

DNF @ 26%

Though the message of this book is really important, I found the storyline to be really slow and boring that I just couldn't get into it.

Thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Who will you be at Lyrecroft Phelps?

At this school, only the elite are welcome. The students that walk these hallowed halls are propelled into success and acclaim, but behind the perfect exterior is a dark side full of secrets and skeletons.

Charlotte is the perfect student with the perfect boyfriend and social standing, while Max struggles to balance his scholarship with the social demands of the school and the other students. And there's Quinn, who has to watch quietly as the boy who abused her walks around with an untarnished reputation and bright future.

He needs to pay, to suffer - he needs to die for the pain he's caused her. People need to know.

Until now, the rule at the school was that boys will be boys - but now, boys are going to be held accountable for their actions. And our unlikely trio are going to be the ones to make sure that happens, no matter who they have to take down with them.

"I'm as far away from that little girl as I can be, watching her, suspended in some dark antigravity."

TSEOS is a searing indictment of rape culture and the dangerous toxicity that outdated patriarchal standards spread through society. Written with a painful authenticity that I recognised as the voice of a fellow survivor, Rosenblum perfectly captures the unyielding expectations women have forced on them while genuinely exploring the shame and grief that follows abuse, and the deafening silence that can follow asking for help.

Set in the most exclusive and elite of private schools, the setting is suffocating and intense - you can feel the pressures to fit in, to succeed, to conform, to be quiet. The school itself almost feels like a supporting character, a villain in the story. With an almost lyrical, poetic writing style at times, the imagery invoked is so vivid that a simple school almost becomes otherworldly and alienating, with a intensely threatening aura surrounding it.

The characters are masterfully written - we hear from their distinct voices, jumping between perspectives and learning about their individual struggles - Quinn who is being crushed under the weight of the rage she's carrying, Charlotte who is glowing in the light of first love and terrified of her life changing, and Max who is desperately trying to belong in a world that doesn't want him. The intricate relationships between them are a testament to the importance of genuine friendship in our toughest times. All three are imperfect in the most perfect of ways and immeasurably relatable despite their differences and their extreme actions in these pages. Their stories eventually collide together in a fiery conclusion, but every little strand is important in this story.

With the cinematic intensity of a thriller and the brutal honesty of a woman speaking up for her sisters - this is a fast-paced, timely and climatic story full of rage and revenge that was dark and disturbingly delightful. A striking and unapologetic portrayal of the dark underbelly of modern life and the fight for our place in a world designed to beat us down.

TSEOS is an explosive debut that is definitely going to set off some sparks in the literary world this year.

So much promise…

This books is one that I would only recommend to someone who doesn’t mind a long and drawn out story. I have heard many times that the story and anything that happens should be walking (moving the plot) and not talking (just filling space) and this story is too much talking.

The story -

Q wants to go rogue and get revenge on Colin after he stole her innocence and herself from her.

Max wants to be popular and ask Alex out but he doesn’t feel that he is good enough.

Charlotte wants to keep her relationship with Seb and make the most out of being young choreographer.

The execution -

This book is nearly 500 pages and has 17 chapters. However every chapter swaps POV multiple times and has to much filler content that is is repetitive and boring. I would say that it would be easy to cut a good 4 or 5 chapters and about 150 pages of just filler content.

Max and Charlotte’s POV is redundant until the last 40% of the book and makes it very difficult to get through. As you spend so much time not with Q is it hard to sympathise with her until she really breaks down and shares her story with someone.

My thoughts -

I wanted to DNF this and honestly had to keep fighting myself to make it through because I felt that it was an important enough message that I had to.

I love how realistic Q is and how raw the emotions are but it just isn’t enough for me to bump my rating from 2.5 stars.

**Please read all trigger warnings laid out in the beginning of the book. This book focuses on sexual assault and its aftermath.**

★★★★★ 4.5/5

As a prestigious, private high school, Lycroft Phelps is full of people who are marked for success, but underneath the high, fancy exterior, lurks a toxic, degrading, and competitive secret society. 

For Quinn, she's haunted by what happened in May. Unable to move on, and now a shell of her former self, she seeks revenge for what happened. What she's not expecting is everything else she discovers along the path of revenge, discovering that the school and some of the boys there are much worse than she anticipated. 

Charlotte is happy in her little bubble. As a straight A student and goody-two shoes, dating Seb from the Varsity rowing team, life couldn't be better. For her, she's at her happiest, but what she slowly comes to realise is she's also at her most naive. She's the perfect, annoying teenager with a boyfriend, so enraptured by him she's willing to overlook and excuse anything that doesn't fit into her happiness. 

Max knows what the benefits of attending Lycroft Phelps has for him as a STEM focused student, but he also knows how unnoticed he goes. When an opportunity to change how he's seen around school arises, Max is unsure at first, until he finds himself getting the attention he wants from the girl he's crushing on. 

Told from multiple (three) POV's, The Sharp Edge of Silence offers an insight into the goings on of the school and its students from different perspectives. It doesn't shy away from the difficult topic of sexual assault, showing the harrowing ordeal and the aftermath Quinn faces. It's not some 'this happened and that's how it was dealt with' kind of story, just like it's not a light read. There are some dark moments, not just for Quinn, but Max and Charlotte too. It really does delve deep into Quinn's mind as a survivor, and it highlights how toxic masculinity is still ever present, and how teenage boys are effected by it in a corrupt and elite setting. 

Despite the heavy themes, and at times it's a tough read, I absolutely loved this. It's so much more than just another sexual assault book. It's a book about healing, about wanting revenge in ways people struggle to understand, putting trust in others, and learning to accept the help friends can give. It's also about discovering who you really are as a person, the lengths you'll go to, and the changes you make to yourself to fit in. It's a really well written, deep, and dark dive into a world that for some actually exists, even if in small parts. And despite being a NA/YA book, the topics are handled better than some of the adult books I've read surrounding them. 

Did I like the book? Yes. 

Did I love it? Yes. Whilst this is Quinn's story, Charlotte and Max are integral to it. They show more of the students and their lives, and how what happened to Quinn is just the beginning of what's really going on at the school.

Would I recommend it? Definitely, but please be aware of the trigger warnings. They're not there to spoil the book, but to help you protect yourself from reading something that you may find upsetting.

An incredible read.

Shocking, razor sharp and horrifying, this is a great novel and a great commentary on the times we live in.

A must read

So this novel doesn’t pull any punches. Some very dark themes for a YA book, not least because the story is centred (in part) around a rape. Trigger warnings aside it’s dark, engrossing and will keep you up at night.

Shades of Gossip Girl (the TV version rather than the lighter touch books) and Pretty Little Liars (TV version again).

The preppy American private school is well drawn (if not unique), the characters are incredibly well developed. Loved Q. Enjoyed Max. Charlotte’s naivety perhaps a bit too much, but a good foil to the rest.

Looks at toxic masculinity, rape culture, privilege etc.

It’s not an easy read. The assault in particular is harrowing, but it’s a great book,

This was one of the most emotional, raw books I've read in ages which some people may find difficult to read as it tackles rape culture and misogyny head on.
Once I started reading this book I couldn't put it down and was so invested in Q that I sat up into the early hours to find out what happened and if she was ok. Everything about how she felt and what she wanted to do felt believable and an honest reaction of someone going through what she was. The story moves with a good pace and I feel like everyone should read it especially in schools .. I imagine it could start some important conversations amongst students.

I loved this book. Easy to read and engaging from the start, it explores toxic masculinity at an elite American prep school through three different narrative perspectives. Each POV offers a different insight into the subject in an authentic way and I enjoyed skipping between them - the chapters were relatively short and this kept the pace . I felt the author handled the exploration of recovery after trauma incredibly well and Quinn's pain was heartwrenching to witness. I also loved Charlotte's naivety and Max's desire to be popular. Every character and storyline felt real whilst the subject of the book was shocking but not written in a sensationalist or gratuitous way. With a powerful hook and a crucially important message - laying bare the climate that can lead to sexual violence and the utter disrespect of women - it is one of the best contemporary YA books I have read in recent years.

I went into reading this with very little prior knowledge. The cover jumped out to me immediately (plus, I'm a sucker for a bright yellow colour) and didn't expect all that much. I definitely did not expect it to be one of the most thought-provoking books I'd read this year. This was a gut-wrenching and compelling read, full of themes I'd read in other books before, but put together in a way that kept me glued to the pages. I could honestly have read another hundred pages and am still holding out hope for some of the characters. This is a book with a plot that could easily have been over-the-top or handled indelicately. The characters could have been one-dimensional and shallow and the sort of predictable I often expect when I read anything set in a prestigious boarding school. The book also follows the first-person point of views of three different characters: Charlotte, Q, and Max. Again, this could have gone very wrong, with the voices blending or one of the voices being less interesting than the others. But this wasn't the case at all and instead the voices felt pretty distinct and I was interested in hearing the story progress and come together for each of the three "main" characters.

Some background: This book is set at a prestigious boarding school in the US. Lycroft Phelps is the kind of institution that guarantees a spot at a top Ivy League university. There are sporty extra-curriculars and fancy classes to attend. There's an amphitheatre with statues of the Greek muses, there's a spectacular boat house on a picturesque lake and a dining hall with food to envy. But the school is also full of rape culture and misogyny, an attitude of "boys will be boys" and sweeping scandals under the rug. Q is a victim of this culture, after being raped by a star athlete after a dance. The plots a revenge plot that will change her life, and the lives of many others at the school.

This book was such an unexpected delight. I felt immediately drawn in by the plot and the atmosphere and the writing style was fantastic.

Cameron Kelly Rosenblum's 'The Sharp Edge of Silence' is brutal, disturbing and necessary, shining a light on misogyny and sexual assault rife in the institutions of the powerful. Lycroft Phelps is a prestigious private school and easy route into the Ivy League for the generations of wealthy students from elite families who attend. We view the new school year from the point of view of three students: beautiful Charlotte, a dancer with an enviably rich and handsome boyfriend, Max, a scholarship student who is being seduced by the advantages which could be his in the life of an athlete, and Quinn who is reeling from an experience last summer she would rather hide, despite it being a haunting trauma. We follow the events of the new school year complete with secret societies, athletic rivalries and the debauched behaviour of the rich and powerful.

I found this book a tough but important read. Quinn's story is something alarmingly real for any woman who has experienced any sort of unwanted advances from a man. Rosenblum does not hold back on the grotesque portrayal of the corruption of the elite who believe they are entitled to anything they lay claim to, including women's bodies. What is even more disturbing is the young age of the students involved in this story, the rotten core present even in the younger generations. The reveals get darker and more disturbing as the narrative progresses, at some stages the reader being teased with the 'good' characteristics of Quinn's rapist and the potential for lovely Max to be drawn into this disgusting, exploitative world. The moral lines are blurred and the reader longs for the world to be righted with villains punished and the heroes finding justice. Rosenblum highlights the messiness of reality and does not hold back in her portrayal of toxic masculinity and the corruption of the rich and powerful.

Overall, this is a fantastic read. Hard, yes, but powerful. One of my best reads of 2022. 5 stars,

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: None
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

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So err, content guidance. All the content guidance for (this list is non-exhaustive) sexual abuse, reaction to and recovery from sexual abuse, PTSD, rape culture, etc. Also spoilers.

<blockquote> An asymmetric moon rises from the hills behind Lake Edith. It tosses pieces of itself onto the water, and the lake wears them like sequins. You don’t need to make yourself beautiful for this place, Edith, I say in my head. You’re too good for them.</blockquote>

This book is both incredibly good and incredibly difficult to read. As a piece of writing—as a nuanced, sophisticated, and moving exploration of its subject, I very much recommend it. But I also encourage people to take care of themselves above and beyond, because, holy shit, does this hit hard. I mean, I chose very deliberately to read this, the content guidance is very clear, and I was super prepared for the subject matter. And I still feel a bit hollowed out by it, although I should emphasise that the book never felt graphic or gratuitous to me. The assault itself is rendered in a kind of broken poetry—the narrative shattering around the indescribability of an experience like that—in a way that is both abstract and yet captures the emotion of the moment. And mostly the story covers the aftermath of what has happened. It just happens to do so very vividly, which is its own particular kind of painful.

Anyway, the three POV characters in The Sharp Edge of Silence are students at ye traditional privilege-saturated dark academia style boarding school. Charlotte Foresley is middle class, a talented ballerina and choreographer, and currently dating Sebastian McNeilly, one of the school’s golden boys. Maxwell Hannigan-Loffler is an extremely academically gifted scholarship student. And, finally, there’s Quinn (Q) Walsh, a sixth-generation legacy student whose family’s history is entwined with that of school itself. As the book opens, Q is stalking the grounds of Lycroft Phelps, full of pain and anger, trying to steal a gun from school security so she can shoot Colin Pearce—the boy who sexually assaulted her at a dance last term. Charlotte, meanwhile, is aspiring win a chorography competition and fretting about not being good enough to keep the attention of a boy like Seb McNeilly. And Max, a short, socially devalued nerd, is being invited to cox for the school’s prestigious rowing team, an invitation that will change the trajectory of his future at Lycroft Phelps.

To get my own nerdy notes out of the way first, something I really appreciated about this setup is the way the three stories seem disconnected at first but gradually come together in the second half of the book, offering us three different perspectives on Q, what happened to her, and the events that follow. More satisfyingly still, the voices of the three protagonists are exceptionally well-realised: sufficiently distinct that if you opened the book at any point, you would recognise whose POV you were in. I love that shit. But I also appreciated how flawed, and in quite specific ways, each of the characters was allowed to be. Q is so angry and self-destructive that, for all its completely understandable, it’s almost unbearable. Charlotte is insecure in ways that are equally understandable, but also make her self-absorbed and, on one occasion, spiteful. Max, meanwhile, has that nerdy smart-but-stupid thing going on. He’s well-meaning, but he has a bunch of slightly Reddity theories regarding the kind of men women are attracted to (he calls it the Quantitative Hotness Correlativity Theory – oh my dude, no) and it’s, once again, understandable and inevitable why he would have his head so thoroughly turned by a brush with popularity and belonging.

The main thing I have to say about The Sharp Edge of Silence, though, is that it struck me (and, as ever, we’re talking about deeply personal and subjective issues here, I am talking only about my own reactions) is an incredibly clever take on its subject matter. And I realise ‘clever’ sounds a bit damning when you’re talking about something as emotive and complicated as sexual abuse, but I really admired every choice this book too around its subject matter, and the nuance it allowed to flourish.

For example, Q is a self-aware and politically alert student—she mentions #MeToo, for example—as well as being extremely (and I do mean extremely) privileged. Her incredibly wealthy grandfather actually sits on the board of governors for the school. Although her mother is dead, her family are loving and supportive, wealth in their own right, and influential enough to be able to seek advice from a top lawyer when she tells them what happened. There’s a tendency, I’ve found, with stories that deal with, y’know, *this*, especially those set at educational instalments to emphasise social and class privilege as well as … err …rape culture privilege? I’m thinking something like The Riot Club (aka Posh) or Anatomy of a Scandal, the situation nearly always involves a man of high social standing and woman without those advantages. But I think, by making different choices about Q’s access to sources of conventional power and protection, what The Sharp Edge of Silence is able to explore in quite a devastating way is the stark reality that … urgh I’m sorry to write this so horribly but … if a man decides to r*pe you, chances are he can r*pe you. And all the power, wealth, privilege and uplifting social media movements in the world are unlikely to stop him. That is not, by the way, to diminish the impact of those things, especially when it comes broader cultural changes: but when it comes to one girl and one boy at a party, the calculus can be brutally simple. In case it’s not clear, I really felt for Q, throughout. Her journey from traumatised to a path of recovery was profoundly credible to me, and all the more so for the times when she’s so lost in the immediacy of what happened to her that access to conventional sources source of help (therapy, friends, family, love) simply couldn’t be enough.

Charlotte and Max’s stories are kind of a necessary emotional break from what’s going on with Q, but they also offer context to her journey in really intriguing ways. With Charlotte we get to see Sebastian (one of the hyper-privileged rowing team, and close fried of Colin Pearce, who assaulted Q) in a gentler context. And with Max we get to seeing the rowing team at their best, as a group of young men who are equally as capable of teamwork, commitment, loyalty and kindness as they are of … err. Degrading, objectifying and assaulting women. There’s a kind of tragedy to it, almost. I don’t say that in defence of anything that they do, or to detract from Q’s story, but the rowing team could have been portrayed as monsters. Instead, they’re portrayed as human and, somehow, that’s even worse. Because they do what they do *knowingly*. Because they could be better. And while the book is very clear that r*ping someone, locker room talk, and having a mildly problematic theory about who hot girls date are not remotely equivalent, and yet they are part of the same culture (part of rape culture in fact). This doesn’t make them equally dangerous, nor does it imply that one inevitably leaves to the others, but it does remind us that the crime comes from the culture and stopping one will not change the other.

All of which said, it’s kind of also important that not everything is terrible in this book. While it can’t (shouldn’t) really offer Q unilateral healing, it can (and does) offer her hope: a steady path to recovery, supported by professionals and loved ones. And while it is understanding of her anger, it ultimately recognises the futility of revenge-fuelled fantasies. This isn’t to say there is no resolution on the issue of Colin Pearce and the rowing team, because there is and it's as satisfying a one that can be offered without the book losing its grounding in realism. But the closest thing that Q can get to a happy ending for this particular experience is reaching a point where what happens to Colin Pearce is as no longer part of her story. And the fact that the book is able to get her there, without taking any shortcuts, diminishing the complexity of its themes, or surrendering to cliched expectations regarding how we represent either abusers or abuse survivors, is its own triumph. For both Q and, I think, the author.

A well written and paced book that kept me hooked throughout. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review.

A prestigious school has more than its fair share of entitled, moneyed students along with a few scholarship young people fighting for their place in the pecking order.
Charlotte can’t imagine why she has been chosen by Seb, worshipped by many other girls for his looks and athletic prowess.
Max, on a scholarship, is content being a nerd and all-round nice guy.
But Q has returned after the holiday to face her demons after being raped by Colin Pearce and not letting on to anyone at school. She is obsessed by trying to acquire the gun possessed by security in order to shoot Pearce. Her torment is visceral and brilliantly written but heartbreaking.
Max finds himself on the rowing team, more for his size than anything, and is convinced it will lift his social standing at school. What he is unaware of is the secret society he now finds himself part of and the sheer toxicity of its culture.
But once the girls find out they are determined to bring it down with public humiliation of all involved.
Although hiding what she has experienced is a common occurrence among victims of sexual assault, the lack of action to report the crime for law enforcement and opinions of a family lawyer that Q would have difficulty bring a case against the perpetrator is disappointing and not a message of hope to others.

The Sharp Edge of Silence examines toxic masculinity and its impact from the perspectives of those it affects.
Set in the privileged Lycroft School, students are accustomed to being asked who they want to be. Their alumni take up powerful positions in society, which makes this a read that you can’t help but notice.
Our story focuses on a number of students, among them Quinn who has returned to school having been raped by one of the star athletes at the end of the previous year. We also experience life at school through the eyes of her roommate, girlfriend of one of the rowers implicated, a scholarship student inducted into the rowing team and his best friend. There are also snippets on interactions between key staff which allows us to examine this culture from a number of positions.
Although we know from early on that Quinn was raped, the book opens by focusing on her unusual behaviour upon returning to school. You’d think people would notice and they do, eventually, but my goodness is she put through the wringer before things start to get done.
Having read the synopsis of this book I was under the impression that the focus would be firmly rooted on the reaction to the event. It is, but in a much more drawn-out way than you might think. This is not a bad thing, just quite different to what I predicted, which took a while to adjust to.
Once we move into the closing stages of the book, we see more than one or two students examining their assumptions. The way the lid is blown on this sordid experience is nothing short of spectacular. Though there are repercussions for the key player involved it frustrated me no end that we never gain any insight into his mind after the truth comes out. While this might be the grim reality, part of me wants more hope from our fictional explorations of such behaviours.
I’m hugely grateful to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this before publication, and I can’t wait to see how it’s received upon publication next year.