The Sharp Edge of Silence

The Sharp Edge of Silence

Cameron Kelly Rosenblum

#7516 of 8,085 books · #753 in Young Adult

Shortlisted for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Young Adult Novel (2024).

Tradition meets People Like Us in this timely and haunting YA contemporary standalone that tackles the contagious nature of toxic masculinity at an elite New England boarding school clinging to its past, and the sexual assault that changes everything. This is the question all Lycroft applicants want to be asked: "Who will you be at Lycroft Phelps?" It means they've been accepted to one of the most prestigious private high schools in the nation. Over 150 years is plenty of time for traditions to bake into the campus's bricks and ivy. Ceremonies. Athletic rivalries. Secret societies. Pranks taken too far. But navigating it all will make Charlotte (perfect, straight-A student), Max (scholarship kid and STEM whiz), and Quinn (artist, dreamer, Lycroft legacy) question all they thought they knew about themselves…and the school. Especially when Quinn's sexual assault becomes public and implicates one of the top-tier athletes on campus. Told in alternating perspectives, this gripping, fast-paced narrative explores the fallout and reckoning that follows.