The Edge of Anything
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2020
One of A Mighty Girl's Best Books of the Year
A Bank Street Best Books 2021
Finalist for the Cybils Awards
Len is a loner teen photographer haunted by a past that's stagnated her work and left her terrified she's losing her mind. Sage is a high school volleyball star desperate to find a way around her sudden medical disqualification. Both girls need college scholarships. After a chance encounter, the two develop an unlikely friendship that enables them to begin facing their inner demons.
But both Len and Sage are keeping secrets that, left hidden, could cost them everything, maybe even their lives.
Set in the North Carolina mountains, this dynamic #ownvoices novel explores grief, mental health, and the transformative power of friendship.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This emotionally charged story of two high school girls battling different illnesses near Asheville, N.C., follows an awkward acquaintanceship that blossoms into a profound, perhaps life-saving friendship. Seventeen-year-old volleyball star Sage's dreams of going pro are crushed when she is diagnosed with a dangerous heart condition. Meanwhile, her schoolmate Len fears "slowly losing her mind" as she becomes increasingly fearful and less able to control her thoughts and behaviors following a family tragedy. After a couple of uncomfortable encounters at school, the girls become aware of each other's vulnerabilities and temporarily put aside their own problems in order to reach out. Gradually forming a bond of trust, Sage and Len become confidantes, but the risks they secretly take when alone could lead to at least one of their deaths. Carpenter (Yoga Frog), herself a victim of trauma-induced OCD, draws equally convincing portraits of two suffering teens. Alternating the girls' points of view, she sharply contrasts their home lives, personalities, and passions while focusing on their fears and despair. Chronicling traumas and the girls' respective coping mechanisms in ways both genuine and harrowing, Carpenter focuses on hope and the ways friendship can help shine light through the darkness. Ages 13 up.
