Sharp Edges: About the Book
Katie is used to being let down. Her best friend abandoned her for a boy, her mom is a hypochondriac who spends most days on the couch, and the guys at school can do whatever they want while the girls are stuck following the rules.
All Katie wants is to be seen. So when she finds an online world where women aren’t ashamed of what they want and consent doesn’t feel like the grey area she’s used to, she thinks she’s finally in control. But as Katie becomes more and more enmeshed in this virtual playground, she begins to realize her newfound power may just be an illusion.
Sharp Edges is the story of a girl lost in a grown-up world far darker than she could have imagined—searching for someone to guide her to a place where she can be sixteen again.
The Review
Sharp Edges by Leah Mol has more trigger warnings than we can share. Suffice it to say, that this is a very dark novel. As you follow 15 turning 16-year old Katie’s journey – she descends from curiosity into action. From cutting herself, to a descent into drugs, hanging out with the wrong crowd and using sex as a power-play, this book is disturbing. If you can take reading the subject matter though, it is something that we highly recommend.
Although this is Leah Mol’s debut novel, she writes with moments of brilliance. Sharp Edges feels like the more modern telling of Go Ask Alice – a book that was a must read for anyone growing up in the 70’s and 80’s. It was about another 15-year old girl’s troubled teenage years. Mol’s book is significantly different, especially given the addition of computers and chat rooms, but it has the same realistic feel. Mol’s writing is intense and Katie’s thoughts feel so real that it almost feels like non-fiction. Although the story deals with young adults, it can’t be classified as Young Adult Fiction.
Katie’s pain and and loneliness make her willing to put up with abuse, much of which is self-inflicted from cutting herself to drugs to the seedy world of online pornography and beyond. Katie is so fragile, and has the odds so stacked against her, that you can’t help but want her to have a happy ending, but this isn’t a simple story. Her wants are simple though: “wanting someone to hold [her] and keep [her] from falling apart.” The only typical things about Katie are her feelings that she doesn’t belong anywhere.
You will not finish this book and feel like you enjoyed it. You will be disturbed for sure, but there is no denying that Mol is a talented writer and you will remember Sharp Edges.
