LoveReading4Kids Says
August 2025 Book of the Month
This emotive and powerful page turner stunningly depicts the beauty of the South Devon coast, where the author grew up, and the strength of the community that lives there all year round, but also authentically reveals the blight caused to these families lives by second homes forcing up property prices beyond the pockets of local people, the decline of the fishing industry and the availability of only seasonal employment. On a more personal level, it is a searing portrayal of loss, grief, challenges to masculinity in the modern world and the strength of friendship and sibling bonds.
Motherless Rhys and his younger brothers, Dav and Owen, have to be pretty self-sufficient since their father Phil can only find an income as a long-distance lorry driver. Rhys is a complex, nuanced character – a highly talented surfer who has lost access to what he loves, is excluded from school, with no prospects, but who would do anything for his brothers and to keep social services from their door. Their council home is under threat of redevelopment and the family faces being moved to Exeter and in this fearful and angry state, Rhys is an easy target for Dodo – a radical activist inspired by the 1980’s Welsh protest group Meibion Glyndwr. Rhys is drawn into increasingly more dangerous activities and also increasing drug use affecting his ability to make the right choices.
The reader is constantly on edge as the boys we are so invested in seem to be lurching towards a tragic conclusion and while there is no easy solution, what triumphs is the unshakeable familial love that brings them back from the brink. Original, heartwrenching and highly recommended.
Joy Court
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On the Edge Synopsis
Sea, Surf and impossible Dreams
‘Beware of spoiling young men’s futures. They will become a flapping, snapping moray on the deck, electrics firing long after they’ve been clubbed on the head.’
What if the life you were promised was taken from you? What would you do to get it back?
Rhys lives in a coastal town in South Devon, where seasonal work dries up as winter storms hit, housing is hard to come by and livelihoods are threatened by distant bureaucrats. Life is much harder for Rhys and his two younger brothers than tourists can possibly know.
It is only when surfing that Rhys finds solace in the beauty around him: the crashing waves, towering cliffs and sandy beaches. But when that solace is taken, his tinder-dry rage is soon ignited. Determined to defend his family from a life blighted by social neglect and poverty, Rhys is drawn to Dodo, a radical political activist inspired by the Welsh protest group, Meibion Glyndwr. Before long, Rhys' actions spiral out of control, with dire consequences for himself and those he loves.
Set in a coastal town and drawing on the author's own rural childhood, this YA / crossover novel explores how young people's futures are built - and defended - on shifting and uneven ground, where tides of tourism, gentrification and second-home ownership erode the traditional ways of life and financial stability of locals. Beautifully drawn characters, lyrical depictions of the natural landscape, brotherly love, family loyalty - and surfing. A powerful and thought-provoking summer read.
Cover design by Michelle Brackenborough
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781910646755 |
| Publication date: |
14th August 2025 |
| Author: |
Nicola Garrard |
| Publisher: |
Old Barn Books |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
320 pages |
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Nicola Garrard Press Reviews
'Tender and angry, salty and sweet… a heartfelt novel shaped by powerful undercurrents’ - Michael Morpurgo
'Such gorgeous, gorgeous writing!' – Patrice Lawrence
'On the Edge has all the gritty realism and truth we’ve come to expect from Garrard’s novels. We have a compelling central character, unidealised, but sympathetic, and a world underexplored in fiction - the hard-scrabble life of the working classes in an off-season tourist resort. Garrard’s writing has gained an extra depth, and the prose, rich with salty metaphor, often sings an alluring siren song. It’s a beautiful book, as well as an important one' – Anthony McGowan
'This book is magnificent' - Katriona O'Sullivan, author of Poor
‘An important and powerful story of family, community and love’ - Matt Goodfellow
'On the Edge is a beautiful, immersive read which crackles with tension, heartbreakingly provocative. I felt every emotion of Rhys as Garrard draws us into the coastal beauty of South Devon with such skill. Her remarkable writing weaves powerful themes of family and belonging, and within the despair and heartbreak there's still humour. A brilliant read.’ - J.P. Rose, author of Birdie
‘This book stole my heart, I loved the boys so much. But I also worried for them constantly and as the book progressed this worry intensified… I felt that I was truly there with them and I so much wanted to make things easier for them. Very happy to recommend to all teens and older.’ - Fiona Sharp, bookseller and reviewer at Independent Book Reviews
'This book had me fixed as soon as I read the first few pages, the story is powerful beyond measure. It fixes with a time in your life when dreams are to be made but yet life gets in the way! A story for YA/crossover and for anyone who has, or had dreams! … In a short time as I read this book, it just gripped me and held me in its grasp. I recommend it hugely and would say… “Just buy it!” - Sue Martin, Children’s Literature expert, The Book Monitor website
‘Atmospheric and thought-provoking, packs an emotional punch. Brilliantly captures that time before adulthood when pathways and possibilities feel expansive.’ - Jake Hope, literacy consultant
‘I was captivated from the very first page... a timely and nuanced exploration of financial hardship, masculinity and adolescence.’ - Stephen Dilley, UKLA and JustImagine
‘Nicola Garrard evokes fiercely and with skill young male lives unfolding in coastal shadows, battling outside forces with scant regard for their existence.’ - John McCullough, Poet
‘Raw and lyrical, On the Edge dives into brotherhood, belonging, and a boy's fight to hold on.’ - Matthew Tobin, Lecturer in Children’s Literature, Oxford Brookes University
‘This stunning novel is a modern tragedy, a love story and a warning, both political and deeply personal. I found myself immersed in the seaworld of the Fisher boys and their dad, so very real and modern, yet also ancient and of the wild deep blue. This beautiful, important novel washed into my heart. I read, gripped with grief and rage, then moved by the gentleness, the love between the boys, and laughing at the fantastically accurate communications between the brothers.’ - Astra Bloom
‘This is a gorgeously written novel whose characters leap off the page in all their messy, loving complexity. Vividly depicting the consequences of seaside gentrification, neglect, and inequality, it's angry, poetic, funny, and empathetic, and it demands that we see, and that we care. I'll be thinking of these characters for a very long time.’ - Sarah Brooks
‘On the Edge is a novel of rare power, dazzlingly original and full of heart. This is a tale of extremes: poverty and riches, humour and heartbreak, despair and hope. It’s impossible not to fall in love with Rhys and his two younger brothers as they navigate the challenges of life in an out-of-season seaside town. The writing is wonderfully lyrical, yet maintains a raw energy that made me laugh and cry. Prepare to be swept away!’ - Juliet West, author of Before the Fall
‘Immersive, haunting, atmospheric. Garrard's storytelling transported me to Devon.’ - Sarah Harman
‘Written with such great compassion for her young characters, Nicola Garrard has the reader surfing atop a wave of hope and familial love. Just beautiful!’ - Cauvery Madhavan
‘On the Edge is a raw, tender story about a boy trying to hold his family together in a seaside town that has been ‘left behind’. It showcases the many challenges - seasonal employment, a lack of affordable homes, hollowed-out communities, and a lack of opportunity - that young people living by the coast face. Nicola Garrard writes with heart, humour and defiance, artistically conveying the hidden truths of the English seaside.’ - Prof. Sheelah Argawal Co-Director of the Centre for Coastal Communities, University of Plymouth
‘Very moving, showing the effects of bereavement as well as poverty and parental neglect in the chase to provide an income. Also good at highlighting the plight of seaside towns and the impact on housing for the locals. The story very much has an own voice vibe. You can hear the dialect.’ - Sarah Smith, Brent Libraries
