Review of SHARP EDGES by Leah Mol (New Release)

 3.5 Stars

This book focuses on the difficulty of being a teenaged girl, especially if she has no support or supervision.

Katie, the narrator, is fifteen.  Her father is absent and her mother is a hypochondriac who focuses on herself, so provides her daughter no support or supervision.  When Katie’s friend Lil becomes pre-occupied with a boyfriend, Katie feels totally alone.  She mentions more than once how she feels invisible and wants to be seen.  Typically for her age, she is curious about sex.  She ends up joining an online group where she sells her underwear and takes part in virtual sexual acts.  Just as she explores the dark side of the internet, she increasingly turns to drug usage

The portrayal of a teenaged girl is very accurate.  Katie’s concern about fitting in is typical of most girls her age.  Because she has low self-esteem, she will do anything to be accepted.  Unfortunately, she starts hanging around people who regularly use drugs, so her life soon spirals out of control.  Naturally, she is also curious about sex.  Though she has some sexual experiences in real life, they are largely unsatisfactory because the boys are the ones who are in charge of such encounters:  “I know the sex is good because he always comes, and he always kisses me on the forehead before he pulls out.  He’s never given me an orgasm – I don’t know if he’s tried.”  On the online site, she feels she has control since she can express her desires and can set parameters for what is acceptable to her. 

The reader will certainly feel sympathy for Katie; she talks about “wanting someone to hold [her] and keep [her] from falling apart.”  She thinks she is alone in her feelings, not realizing that she’s “exactly the same as other people . . . [needing] the same things as everyone else.”  Katie’s behaviour takes her down some dark paths which cannot but leave the reader feeling uncomfortable.  I did find that some of her choices were extreme.  Katie herself thinks she is crazy. 

As expected in a coming-of-age novel, Katie does eventually experience growth.  Unfortunately, her change comes quickly at the end.  One conversation changes everything?  There is a comment about everything not being okay immediately, but since the novel concludes a page later, the ending seems abrupt. 

To be honest, I found the novel a tedious read.  Katie goes from one party to another and from one online encounter to another.  At each party she attended, I knew to expect more extreme drug usage; during each online exchange, I knew to expect more extreme sexual behaviour.  The repetitive nature of events becomes tiresome. 

I’m not certain about the target audience.  Is the book intended for teenaged girls?  Some might be able to relate to Katie, but I wonder whether it would actually positively influence troubled girls.  As a former teacher who taught teenagers for 30 years, I found much of the depiction of Katie to be realistic; however, the book became monotonous for this adult reader.

Note:  I received a digital galley of the book from the publisher via NetGalley.