By Norah Jewett ’25
While it was the cover art and the promise of a boarding school that drew me in, the realistic PTSD that comes with past sexual assault is what kept me reading all the way through Cameron Kelly Rosenblum’s The Sharp Edge of Silence.
The book follows three characters, Charlotte, Max and Quinn, and their experiences at the elite boarding school Lycroft Phelps. All three are answering the school’s infamous question, “who will you be at Lycroft Phelps”, in their own unique ways.
And as lofty and idealistic as Charlotte and Max’s first few chapters seem, the reader feels an immediate change in Quinn’s point of view.
A contrast to the other main characters, Quinn’s experiences are filled with rage and fear after being sexually assaulted by a star student athlete months prior. She’s constantly haunted by flashbacks and thoughts that are affecting her everyday life in school. Each of the three main characters has ties to this abuser that will lead them into discovering a horrifying truth about this prestigious school.
While fiction, this book deals with topics such as sexual assault and toxic masculinity and the ways many people move to accept it and defend it. In a way, this book covers some of these blaring issues in society that many fail to address. Not many books talk about the aftermath of sexual assault and just how hard it can be to accept oneself and the world around you once more. In the media, there has been a decisive lack of acknowledgement of these topics, so books taking a stance and bringing awareness to these problems are a step in the right direction.
If you’re looking for a book that covers these issues, as well as a fight to battle and overcome those problems, The Sharp Edge of Silence may be your next read. Just be ready to ask yourself: who will you be at Lycroft Phelps, and are you ready to sacrifice everything to achieve it?
