Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read and review this ARC. Full review to be found on Goodreads and on my website.

I love the premise of this book- a young woman, Lucy, comes of age in New York and struggles to find herself as her athleticism and personality go against what's considered traditional feminism. Lucy is in love with her best friend, Percy, a young man who's an heir to a very large fortune who doesn't see her the way she sees him. I loved the character of Lucy and was rooting for her as she struggled with her relationship with Percy and self-esteem, but I found myself getting lost as the story unfolded. I love stories of athletes- especially female athletes!- but something prevented me from rating this 5 stars. It's a debut, though, and I'm definitely interested to see where the author goes next!

This debut novel by Dana Czapnik is not easy to review as there are aspects to love, things to hate, and parts that made me feel confused.

The first thing I'm struggling with is its genre. It was offered as an ARC by the publisher in the category "General Fiction (Adult)." It's protagonist Lucy Adler is a seventeen-year-old girl from New York City who loves playing basketball and a boy who's out of reach. While I wouldn't call it a typical Young Adult novel, I'd certainly recommend it for a young female audience. It's too intellectual to be your average teenage book, but it addresses issues young women and girls will be able to identify with.
The book is set in the 1990s in New York and tells some episodes from Lucy's senior high school year. We follow her as she deals with issues such as growing up, first love, feminism, big city life, and finding her place in the world. The first person narration that also delves into stream-of-consciousness storytelling allows us to gain an insight into a teenage girl's mind, her worries, dreams, and aspirations. This book is driven by character and not so much plot. It can also be read as a portrait of teenage life of that particular era and that specific place. New York itself doesn't only serve as mere background but is a character in and of itself. Overall, The Falconer is a captivating characterization of a girl told in carefully chosen prose. It is mainly that latter point that I both like and dislike. Some passages were beautifully told and made me think a lot about what it means for a girl to grow up. On the other hand, the language sometimes impeded identification with this character since it seemed too artificial and intellectual. Lucy would have been more authentic if her relatable experiences with love, friendship, and adulting had not been tried to be analysed so much by the author.
"Because isn't it just so much easier for everybody when a girl fits into a nice little girl category - good girl slut tomboy girly girl smart girl ditz - instead of being a fully fleshed-out person who is in constant conversation and sometimes argument and sometimes war and sometimes peace with all the various factious parts of herself. I have to live in a world where the whole human being that I am will make other people uncomfortable and find a way to not be bothered." Sorry, that's just too much analysis that seems to come from outside and not something inherent to the character. And there are numerous other examples that are similar.
Other parts were confusing and felt like an exercise in coming up with the most intellectual metaphor to describe the city, for example Time Square in the small hours:
"The adrenaline-soaked desperation that usually fills the atmosphere is replaced by the last morsels of despair, the globules of oil you find lining the bottom of a Chinese take-out box. A place full of things. After my wreck of a night, I belong here."
Then again, there were moments I thoroughly enjoyed, mostly when I felt that the words truly came from Lucy. That's when she as a character came across as authentic, likable, brave, completely average and special at the same time.
"One day in the distant future, I will think about you again, and my heart will lurch in an ancient muscle memory. And the fleeting sting of the moment will have nothing to do with you and everything to do with the seventeen-year-old girl who loved you and the impossibility of unforgetting her." Yes, it also sounds a bit affected, but for some reason, I liked that part - maybe because it speaks to my teenage self.

In the end, The Falconer is a beautiful coming-of-age story young women and those who'd like to get in touch with their inner teenage girl will enjoy.
"Where to go? Where to go?
Girl. Wherever the fuck you want.

In The Falconer:A Novel, 17-yer-old Lucy Adler, a smart, talented basketball player at Pendleton Academy in NYC, calls herself a "Pizza Bagel" - an Italian, Jewish mutt. Written from Lucy's first-person point of view, the rhythm of the story is like that of a sports commentator, which is not surprising as the author is a sports journalist. Lucy spends a great deal of time on the basketball court playing pickup games with her best guy friend and unrequited love interest, Percy Abney, an ultra-rich boy trying to resist his blue-blood fate. She watches despondently, as he has flings with and discards one girl after another, oblivious to Lucy's being in love with him. She also wanders NYC with her best girlfriend and teammate Alexis Feliz, waxing poetic about the city's wonders, and hangs out with her cousin Violet, a bohemian artist who lives with her girlfriend Max in Soho. Max's claim to fame is her pop-art installation of an American flag made of dildos, which was shown at the Whitney Biennial. The girls talk endlessly about love, sexism, and art vs capitalism. Attending an Art vs Kmart demonstration, Lucy wonders, "Does art always win? If it did, the world would be a very different place." The lyrical descriptions of NYC and the spot-on accounts of Lucy's basketball games will keep the reader eagerly turning the pages. Even as Lucy suffers one humiliation after another, I had faith that she would ultimately land on her feet. This coming-of-age in Manhattan story is being compared to Catcher in the Rye.

Published by Atria Books on January 29, 2019

When she’s not taking one hundred shots a day as a form of meditation, Lucy Adler plays pickup basketball on the street courts of Manhattan. She’s played one-on-one against Percy Abney all her life. They both attend private prep schools but their street smarts help them survive on the courts. Lucy has a thing for Percy, but he loves her as a friend and does not share her romantic desire. Percy is popular because he’s a baller and will inherit a fortune, but he is careless with the feelings of the women he beds. His obnoxious brother Brent is popular because he buys friendship. Lucy is not popular. The students at her school assume she’s a lesbian because she’s tall and athletic. Other girls don’t like her because she doesn’t want to talk about diets.

For that matter, Lucy doesn’t really like herself. She judges herself based on how she believes others perceive her. She isn’t doing the right things to get into a top college. She isn’t beautiful. She lacks effervescence. She doesn’t wear the right clothes. She feels unloved and expects that will never change.

Like most people, Lucy and her friends are self-absorbed. I was initially put off by Lucy’s teenage angst, although her random internal musings are entertaining. Abstract thoughts spin from concrete observations. When she babysits, she contemplates the belongings of her neighbors as she rifles through their drawers. She thinks about poultry and the nature of beauty and whether an American flag made out of dildos has artistic value.

As the novel moves forward, either Lucy’s thoughts deepen or I began to empathize with her agony. Maybe both are true. Lucy has something to say when she considers the collective experiences that define a generation and the difficulty of defining oneself as an individual in the face of pressure to conform. She ponders gravity and risk after watching the Challenger explode. She looks at a boot print in the snow and thinks about how things change in minutes. She considers the value of loneliness because it reminds her of the importance of other people. She makes a good argument that naked female bodies, unlike male bodies, carry “the weight of history.” Maybe those aren’t profound thoughts (although maybe some are), but they are deeper than the thoughts she has about why boys don’t like her.

On the other hand, some of the deep thoughts shared by a friend with an alcoholic mother were expressed in a way that struck me as contrived, and her friend Violet’s attempt to instill a feminist education in Lucy amounts to little more than bromides. Fortunately, Lucy has a talk with her mother (who has a Ph.D. and clearly qualifies as a feminist despite quitting a professorship to raise Lucy) that helps her gain a more practical view of life from someone who has actually lived one.

A sex scene that takes place while a hockey game is blaring away on television is without doubt one of the best literary descriptions of lost virginity I’ve read. Not because the sex is titillating (far from it) but because Lucy is so unprepared to have sex that is divorced from intimacy. The juxtaposition of lust and anxiety and hockey commentary is unique and amazing.

Near the end, the story becomes a love/hate letter to New York City (a place that is easy to love and hate) and then to the world, which Lucy thinks “is so beautiful, even when it’s hideous.” Lucy isn’t quite sure if she is an existentialist, an idealist, or just a lonely woman whose friends betray her. Lucy contains multitudes. Her desire is to see the world for what it is, in all its complexity and contradictions. That should be a universal goal, but as Lucy discovers, most people only want to see what they already believe to be true.

The Falconer is a strong coming-of-age novel. Lucy’s perspective (or variety of perspectives, given that she is constantly at war with herself) is unusual and all the more worthwhile because hers is not a common point of view in coming-of-age literature. Coming of age ultimately means deciding what kind of person you want to be. Lucy’s decision might serve as an inspiration, not just to high school girls who play basketball, but to everyone who is coming of age, no matter what age they might be.

RECOMMENDED

I tried. I really tired to become invested in the storyline, the characters, but I just could not do it. I understand it is exactly what some readers will enjoy, just not me.
Congratulations Dana Czapnik, I will be looking for future work from you because you are talented and who knows maybe the next one will be for me! Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read for a fair review.
Did not finish, gave up at 52%.

I'm a tad late with this review but I *really* dug 'The Falconer.' It's a terrific and compelling coming-of-age story brimming with insight and empathy and delicious details and you'll-really-care-about-'em characters [and a few choice basketball-is-life interludes/descriptions/metaphors].. *And* it has a chunk of wisdom I've shared quite a few times in the last few weeks and will continue to drop into conversations [until I'm done not growing up/aging]: "No one grows up. People just age."

I adore this book! Lucy was immediately a likable and relatable character that I was invested in. I love Lucy's stance on life, love, friendship, and body image. She sends an incredible message of staying true to yourself that modern day teens need more of. I would highly recommend this to not just teens and YA lovers, but all adults and educators that work with young adults. We all need more positive stories like this in our life. Thank you so much Atria Books for providing a free review copy for my honest review.

3.5 stars rounded to 4 stars

I read an intriguing interview about the author and the making of this book, which led to my requesting it from Net Galley. The author stated this is the book she wanted to read when she was a teen. It is very different from the usual books I pick up.

The protagonist is Lucy Adler, a very talented basketball player on the public courts in New York City. The story, set in 1993-1994, is a slice of life focused on Lucy’s 16th and 17th years and is told entirely from Lucy’s perspective. We accompany Lucy on her coming-of-age journey as she tries to find a direction in life at a time when America is still essentially a man’s world. Lucy faces many challenges, including not being popular at school, being secretly in love with her best friend Percy who fancies many girls, grappling with feminism, trying to figure out how women can earn the same opportunities as men, and most importantly, how to stay true to herself at the same time. Despite her challenges, Lucy is able to find moments of joy, beauty, strength, and ultimately understanding.

Here are some of the reasons for my relatively low rating. I would have enjoyed some introspection from some of the other characters; everything is viewed through the eyes of Lucy. I loved the scene Lucy shared with her mother - I wanted to see more of her mom. There are many descriptive passages throughout the book; a little less would be better. I did not care much for all the scenes with Violet and Violet’s friend Max. A few would have been fine, there were just too many and that thread became tiresome.

I do, however, award 5 stars to Lucy. Lucy is an exceptionally strong character, and I will remember her and her spirit for a long time. Her story also inspires an older reader like me to think back and reflect on my own younger years.

This is not standard YA fare. The Falconer is an intelligent book with significant depth. For that reason I have rounded my rating up to 4 stars and recommend it for both older teens and adults.

I loved everything about this book. The narrator, Lucy, is a 17 year old girl who is wise beyond her years but achingly young in her longing. She meets everything and everyone with full force, and embraces the fading beauty and contradictions of New York City in the 1990's as she tries to understand her place in the world. The writing is sharp and specific, and feels like Lucy herself; full of energy, driven, relentless and beautifully vulnerable.

BookFilter Review: A terrific debut. This coming of age novel might have easily been marketed to Young Adults but it fully deserves to be shelved under Fiction and YA and Sports, to name just a few categories. Dana Czapnik has crafted a memorable complex heroine in Lucy, a high school basketball player in New York City with serious game and a serious crush on her handsome best friend Percy in the early 1990s. Lucy is comfortably middle class but Percy is tragically wealthy, ignored by his parents and determined to reject all that wealth and privilege as only a child of wealth and privilege can even pretend to do. Never fear: this is NOT the story of a girl pining for a boy. Lucy is front and center throughout and her story is far more complex and fascinating than the through-line of her deep and complicated friendship with Percy. Lucy has a great and awkward friendship with Alexis -- they clash as only best friends can. She also hangs out with two older female artists living in a loft downtown who put on art shows and take part in demonstrations against the Kmart threatening to open in the Village. You can taste and hear and feel the city through Lucy's eyes, with Czapnik's sometimes block by block description of stores sending this New Yorker into a nostalgic high. Lucy is so smart, so interesting, so self-aware, whether asking her mom about the sacrifices made in her career, taking E and heading to a nightclub, having a sexual experience while a hockey game plays on the TV in the room (she comments on her lover's body and the analysis of the broadcasters with equal insight) or just sitting on a rooftop with friends smoking a joint and hearing the buzz of Manhattan float up and over them. Never forgetting her appreciation for writers or a good hot bagel from H&H, Lucy is especially good at detailing her love for basketball: the thump of the ball, the way her head clears when taking shots, navigating a court filled with guys she just knows will get angry if she schools them too soon and too obviously, arguing with her coach, refusing to play zone defense (as if) and a thousand other memorable details. You'll root for Lucy but don't bother: she's got this. -- Michael Giltz

Title: The Falconer
Author: Dana Czapnik
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4 out of 5

Lucy Adler is seventeen years old in New York City in 1993. Lucy is a basketball star, but she’s frequently the only girl on the street courts, and she’s in love with her best friend and teammate, Percy, son of a wealthy family.

Lucy observes the world around her, always questioning the why of things and seeking to understand. Two female bohemian artists invite Lucy into their circle, and open her eyes to wider issues than basketball and love, as she learns more about being female amidst the struggles women face.

Honestly, I’m not sure what to say about this novel. 1) I don’t generally read sports-related books, but I read this one entirely—and pretty quickly. 2) This is a time-period I relate to—sort of—because I’m only a year younger than Lucy. 3) I know nothing about NYC or art.

The Falconer is very much about Lucy’s internal journal towards knowing who she is and what she wants. What she deserves. She is an exceptional observer, but she doesn’t always know how to process what she sees—especially what she doesn’t like or can’t make sense of. This is about Lucy’s journey—not her feelings for Percy (and he’s a jerk anyway).

The Falconer is Dana Czapnik’s debut novel.

(Galley provided by Atria Books in exchange for an honest review.)

Lucy is a high school student growing up in New York in 1993. She's a so-called "pizza bagel"—a mix of Jewish and Italian heritage. She's not afraid to speak her mind, even if it's to trash-talk, and she's a talented basketball player, comfortable playing among men and boys—and she knows she's good, too.

"I'm not just the leading scorer at my school, I'm the leading scorer in the entire league for two years running, which you would think would garner me the same amount of respect Percy gets. But I'm a girl, and I'm really tall and I don't have Pantene-commercial hair and I'm not, let's say, une petite fleur, so everyone just assumes I'm a lesbian."

As tough as Lucy appears, she also has a vulnerable side, especially when it comes to her best friend, Percy. He's the heir to a major fortune, and things come easy to him, but he likes to pretend he's poor, likes to talk about how horrible America is and how hard people have it. Lucy is in love with Percy, and although she knows he doesn't feel the same way about her, she isn't willing to give up hope, but she also isn't willing to follow him with lovesick stars in her eyes.

"Even though I know Percy isn't remotely interested in Sarah as a person, he likes her in a way he'll never like me, so our jealousy of each other is mutual and equally damaging, which I recognize with the left side of my brain. But I'm a creature forever ruled by the right, the part that holds what a more sentimental person might call the whims of the heart."

Lucy doesn't understand why men and boys are treated differently than women, and even portrayed differently in art. Her favorite statue in Central Park is called "The Falconer," and it depicts a boy releasing a falcon into the wind. She resents how girls and women would be depicted as girlish, afraid of the world around him, yet this boy appears powerful and strong. That's what she wants to have.

Dana Czapnik's debut novel follows Lucy as she struggles with her relationship with Percy, with self-esteem and what her peers think of her, and having to confront the uglier parts of life, people, and the betrayal of trust. Lucy has courage but how do you keep strong in the face of adversity, how do you continue to have self-confidence when you're constantly getting knocked down?

I found Lucy to be a very well-drawn, vivid character. I've seen some comparison to Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, and while I don't really see that, she definitely has a memorable, sometimes acerbic, sometimes vulnerable voice that sticks with you. She is a character you root for, one you take into your heart.

While I loved her character, I struggled with the book overall. At times I felt as if it was told in a stream-of-consciousness style, with long play-by-plays of basketball games and meanderings through New York history, art history, etc. It just didn't hold my attention as much as it hoped, so I found myself skimming through certain parts of the book.

When The Falconer worked, it worked well. It made you feel with, and for, Lucy. While for me, the book was uneven, it clearly demonstrates that Czapnik is a storyteller with a great future, one whose work I'll be watching for.

NetGalley and Atria Books provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

The Falconer is a beautifully written love letter to growing up in 90s-era New York. We follow Lucy through her last year in high school while she plays basketball, waxes philosophical, and crushes on her best friend Percy. Lucy's experiences feel almost painfully realistic at times, and I really liked her friendship with Alexis, a fellow outsider at their private school. Recommended.

Lucy Adler, better known by her friends as Loose, is a seventeen-year-old student who lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in l993. Lucy's love in life is two things, basketball, and Percy, her best friend since childhood. They now attend different private schools but spend most of their free time together, shooting hoops or playing in pick up games in Riverside Park.

Lucy is a wild child. She questions everything in life and chases after the exciting stuff of being young in a New York, starting with basketball. Luce doesn't care about femininity in the traditional high school sense of hair and makeup. She wears baggy jeans, no makeup, has curly, untamed hair and lives a carefree life. Lucy loves and respects her parents and has a full on crush on Percy.

I loved this novel as it mentioned every place I know about New York at a time when we introduced our young daughter to the New York we lived in in the seventies and eighties. As she walks up Broadway from H&H bagels, past Zabars and Harry's shoes (I used to buy shoes there), I remembered what I loved about the city that used to be dirty, dangerous, and amazing. I miss it still.

I love that Lucy not only was obsessed with basketball but had an intellectual curiosity that knew no bounds. Dana Czapnik has written a skillful and heartfelt coming of age novel that deserves the attention of today's youth. I routed for Lucy all the way. She had to win all she wanted out of life. She earned it.

I received an advanced copy of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.

Seventeen-year-old Lucy Adler lives in New York in 1993. We follow her life, she is in love with her best friend and she is… not like other girls?

Objectively, this book might really be it for someone, maybe it is super good? For me it was okay. Maybe it is the genre, or the writing. I’m not sure.

I liked Lucy well enough, her character was interesting and different. Still, I don’t like how this book is supposed to be for feminism (I think?) but still, other women in this book were not smart or good enough if they came across as stupid for Lucy. Because they used makeup or was interested in other things, Lucy judges them. I guess we all judge each other, but shouldn’t all women be respected and thought well of no matter how they present themselves?

This brings me to the next point, because I think the book is trying to get a message across? Or several? There was at least a lot of political and philosophy thoughts in there, I just sort of got lost. When I read books similar in this pattern I don’t understand what it is getting at, maybe it just me. But I didn’t feel touched or inspired by what I read, ‘bored’ is the word I would describe myself with at these parts of the book.

That is what I felt the whole book was about really. Lucy, who is different and because she is different there is a lot of questions of beauty, art, the world, sex, insecurities etc. I could go on. I mean, we all have these questions in life, and as mentioned above I think there is good book in here. I just didn’t feel it.

I still believe a lot of people will like this and I hope they do! I just don’t think it is a story that will stick with me, but it is not something I regret reading. 3 stars!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing me with this eArc.

I picked this up for no other reason but of the favorable comparisons to "Catcher in the Rye." Salinger is my favorite American writer, and while I still preferred "Catcher..." the comparisons are appropriate. I greatly enjoyed this book. It is a coming-of-age piece in 90s New York--an era I feel is primed for some recent nostalgia draw. The characters are likeable, and the setting and time period feels real. It is certainly a worthy update to Salinger's classic.

An absolutely beautiful coming of age novel set in Manhattan in the mid-90s. Lucy is an amazing protagonist; hopelessly in love with her best friend, an amazing athlete, learning about art, feminism, and the real world, and a character you fall in love with. Your heart will break for her, but you will also cheer on her small victories and the lessons she learns. A fabulous novel, one that will stay with me for a long time. I was sad to leave Lucy's world at the end, but excited to let her go and grow up.

Review by 2shay..........

Articulate, funny, honest, heart-warming and heartbreaking. Incredible.

Lucy Adler is a young woman who admits she doesn’t understand girls any more than boys. She’s one of those kids that always feels like an outsider. She’s a basketball player, a good one. She’s fit and talented. The boys on the public courts seldom let her play in their pick-up games, so she spends her time playing one-on-one with her best friend, Percy. Alexis is her best and only girlfriend, the only one who understands how little Lucy cares for clothes, make-up and the drivel that other girls crave. Lucy wants to play basketball and understand the world.

This book has been accurately described as a coming of age story. I couldn’t characterize it better. We follow Lucy through most of her senior year in high school, her triumphs on the basketball court and her tragic love for a boy. Lucy is smarter, more aware...more conscious than I was at that age. More worldly, I think. More mentally articulate. I admired her intellect.

That intellect comes straight from an extraordinarily articulate author. I’m really impressed. I understand that this is Ms. Czapnik’s first novel. I sincerely hope it’s the first of many. She is a smart, talented writer. I hope to read more of her work. I recommend this book to anyone who remembers being seventeen...or those who would like to remember.

Enjoy!

Although I enjoyed the overall message of the story and Lucy's feminism, I felt like it was a bit chaotic in places, and the story suffered from a lack of structure.