Beyond Mean Girls: A Review of The Edge of Anything

In their suburban high school outside Asheville, North Carolina, Sage and Len couldn’t be further apart. Sage is from an upper middle class family and the star of the volleyball team, hoping to play for a prestigious NCAA Division 1 program. Len is a gifted photographer whose application for an arts scholarship is her only chance to afford college, but lately she’s struggled in her art and life because of OCD. After a chance encounter between them ruins Len’s favorite pens, she leaves them in the bathroom with a note for Sage. To Sage, this seems like a strange gesture, but when an ankle sprain leads to the discovery of a heart condition that will end her basketball career, hers and Len’s stories become intertwined in an unlikely friendship that may end up saving both of them if they can keep it going.

Debut novelist Nora Carpenter challenges the mean girl stereotype and shows how young women find each other across class and other lines to forge meaningful and supportive friendships. The well-drawn setting places readers in the midst of lush forests — inspiration for a budding photographer — and contrasts the upscale suburban development where Sage lives with the Len’s tumbledown house on the edge of town, as her family has sacrificed their savings so Len’s beloved grandmother can receive high-quality memory care. Len’s OCD surges after a tragedy for which she feels responsible, while Sage’s hidden and deadly health crisis cuts her off from longtime friends who are still celebrating their successes. One of the most inspiring threads of the novel is the way in which Sage re-engages with her old teammates after keeping her news a secret and brings them to change the way they think about and treat Len. One kind gesture leads to many more in this beautifully written and powerful story.