I love basketball, I love sapphic romance, and I love books that combine the two. This book, while amazing in its accurate depiction of sports and what it is like to play… was toxic and honestly just made me hate everyone in the book. The metaphors about the sport were so long-winded that the literary aspect overtook everything else in the novel, and I couldn’t tell if we were meant to be rooting for the main character or hating her. The ending left me wondering what was the point of all of that, and I just didn’t feel any sense of closure or resolution, which was a bummer, because I really was excited about the potential of this one. 2⭐

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Mack is a high school basketball player still coming to terms with the death of her father while pursuing her dreams of becoming a star basketball player and exploring her sexuality. "A Sharp Endless Need" is like the LTBTQ answer to the movie "Love & Basketball," while ratcheting the drama between teammates on and off the court. The novel explores the struggle of finding one's identity in adolescence and the desperate need to feel seen, validated, accepted, and loved. While the writing is beautiful and on-point in capturing teenage angst, it sometimes gets a bit heavy-handed and overly dramatic at times, often saturated in long descriptions and metaphors.

Crane's writing style is very mature and deep, and it makes it easy to forget that the characters are in high school. In fact, there is almost no mention of school other than the girls' coach, and it seems like they are never in class, doing homework, etc., which is a much different experience than I had in high school, where members of the basketball team were classmates of mine and often made good grades, even while being pursued for collegiate scholarships. That felt like a bit of a miss for me. The players' drug and alcohol use also gets a bit out of hand and begins to consume the last twenty percent or so. This may be intentional to show that substance abuse and addiction is starting to take over, but it took away from a story that had been very interesting without it. It feeds into an ending that is foreshadowed but still felt a little lukewarm in execution.

Fans of sports dramas and angsty coming-of-age stories, particularly those centering around LGBTQ characters will likely find this novel interesting. Former high school basketball players will also probably appreciate this nostalgic look back at the quest for greatness through the eyes of teenage ball players.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced read.

Marisa Crane delivers a powerful coming-of-age novel in A Sharp Endless Need, where the raw intensity of high school basketball mirrors the emotional turbulence of grief, desire, and identity. Star point guard Mack Morris grapples with the tragic loss of her father and the electrifying arrival of transfer student Liv Cooper, forging an on-court chemistry that crescendos into a forbidden off-court romance in their small Pennsylvania town. Crane’s prose is lush and evocative—infused with athletic metaphors that pulse with kinetic energy—making even readers unfamiliar with sports feel the emotional weight of each game and gesture. The novel’s thoughtful structure—divided into halves and full-court metaphors—underscores Mack’s internal battle between ambition and self-destruction, passion and chaos. Rich with nostalgia, queer longing, and the ache of adolescent truth, A Sharp Endless Need is a strikingly intimate and unforgettable portrayal of first love, identity, and the fierce pursuit of self.

Oh I really wish this had hit for me!! 'A Sharp Endless Need' was such a highly anticipated title for me and I think I made the mistake of putting expectations on it which then it did not live up to. I have read several deeper queer coming of age novels (including a sports element) which had beautiful prose that resulted in feeling steeped the teen yearning and fraught internal monologue of the main character and this did not feel like this. While I appreciated aspects of the representation in this story and the vibes of growing up in a small town, the character development (or lack thereof0 and pacing made me struggle with this.

A lovely coming-of-age story about first love. Sports romance has taken over by storm as of late, it seems, and this read was just as great as the other ones I've read. I loved the world we are placed into in this read.

Nice coming of age story and much needed for certain readers. I don't care much about sports but the rest was relatable.

⭐⭐⭐

I think this was just not my kind of book. A high school coming of age story, but also a lot of... Basketball. I got kind of bored in the middle, but then somehow the ending was super rushed and unsatisfying??

Also call me a prude but the underage sex was just too explicit for me. Nooo thank you.

This brought me back to my teenage years, where life was all about friends, social life, and the angst of blooming relationships. Sprinkle in some drama, and this coming of age story is one I won’t forget.

A Sharp Endless Need
I really enjoyed this one! I loved Mack’s drive and passion for basketball and her relationship with Liv. As a longtime lover of the Zags, I wasn’t expecting her to be recruited by Gonzaga!
I struggled with the horrible decisions they all make, but I also found them believable and I loved the time it was set in because I don’t think I could’ve handled the stress of everything being on social media haha.

The yearning was incredible and I found the writing to be so moving! The ending made me so sad but I thought it worked well!
Thank you so much to Random House/The Dial Press and NetGalley for an advance copy!

A queer coming-of-age story taking place within the world of small-town basketball felt like a hit, but ended up not connecting for me. The pacing often dragged and I struggled to hold attention.

Sincere thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Another great title from Marisa Crane. I think this book did a good job describing the longing and loneliness that comes with LGBT relationships.

I loved this story! It was funny but also tender. I have become a big fan of Marisa Crane's writing. This book is worth checking out.

This book was immersive. I felt like I was a high school senior in suburban Pennsylvania in the 90s for its duration and I was terribly stressed. Mack was so easy to cheer for (on and off the court) and that made watching her self-sabotage all the more heartbreaking.

The confusion and fear both she and Liv experience regarding their queerness and their outward responses to that were also so tough to read because of how true they ring. The subtitle of this book should be ‘hurt people hurt people’!

While the book wasn’t long, there were parts of it that felt prolonged, though that may have been my response to how stressful the reading was more than length of the text itself. Which is a testament to how much this book made me feel. It was a good but heartbreaking read.

Spoiler tag

but it's not really a spoiler. the whole time I was just really hoping they didn't end up being sisters. I don't know why I convinced myself this would be the reveal and I'm glad it was not the reveal. the actual reveal seemed lame to me as a result but hey I get it, it's the early 2000s, it's crazy that such a secret would be groundbreaking, it's certainly was then. I lived it.

now I guess I should stop talking hypotheticals and incest.

anyway!

I really related to Mack. I totally understood and felt the high school sports scene and how one activity encompasses you and what you are. the passion and mindset brought me back to my 18 year self and my what a scary place indeed to be transported.

I liked most of this book. I felt the ending was slightly rushed which is saying something given this is a teenage coming of age story. we were slowly working our way to the ending and then bam all kinds of shit happens and I was not prepared for it. I also do not love the title or cover. if you gave me one hundred guesses I would never have thought this was about basketball players discovering sexual identity.

anyway, thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 Stars rounded up to 4

🏳️‍🌈Rep: Sapphic MC & LI, Gender Questioning MC

📝Tropes/Themes: First Love, Coming of Age, Basketball, Friendship, Adolescence, Growing Up, Nostalgia, Gender Exploration, Grief & Loss

Oh to be young and queer in a small town in the early 2000s… Days I remember well and don’t ever wish to repeat! It wasn’t easy to be a queer kid in those days, even if things had improved since prior generations. The first time I told a girl I had a crush on her made me never want to do it again. A Sharp Endless Needs tells Mack’s story through a somewhat nostalgic lens, looking back on her youth as an adult which was a unique story telling method I haven’t encountered before.

The book was organized like a basketball game and even had basketball themed chapter titles. There are numerous basketball themes through the book, especially as the sport is one of the biggest parts of Mack’s life and the lens through which she tries to understand the world. But don’t let that deter you if you aren’t a sports person. You don’t have to understand the game to understand what’s going on in the story.

While it’s not explicitly named and is handled in more subtle ways, Mack is most definitely going through some kind of gender exploration throughout the story. I loved those parts of the story so much. Back in the early 2000s we didn’t have the language we do now and it was harder to figure out who you were when there was no vocabulary that seemed to fit what you felt. That mixed in with all the sapphic pining and the questioning what every action and word means and whether or not the girl you have a crush feels like you do or if it’s different for them. Crane did an excellent job of capturing those emotions and that deep longing.

It took me a bit to get into this one. The writing style felt a bit clunky at times and it made it more difficult to get absorbed into the story. And while there were definitely some things I loved and enjoyed about this story and I would recommend it, it just didn’t spark anything in me or leave a lasting impression. It was still a good book and I will definitely check out Marisa Crane’s other works.

Crane tackles a lot of intense topics in this book, so please do check the TW/CW below before diving in.

⚠️TW/CW: [contains some spoilers] death of a parent, sexual content, alcohol and drug use, alcoholism, car accident, injury, attempted SA, homophobia, use of homophobic slurs, minor self harming acts

A vibrant and intimate novel about growing up, first love, and all the joy and heartbreak of competitive high school basketball.

This novel captures the turbulence of adolescence—grief, passion, and identity—all set against a backdrop of high school basketball. The writing is evocative and emotional, and Mack’s journey feels raw and authentic. But at times, the narrative wavers under the weight of its own intensity, with some plot threads feeling underdeveloped or overly dramatic. A bold debut with heart, even if it doesn’t quite sink every shot.

I was excited to read this because I loved the author's debut novel. All I knew going in was that it was a coming of age, which I love to read. What I didn't realise was how much basketball there would be. I know the main characters are on a basketball team in high school, and they view it as their ticket to getting out of their small, homophobic town. But I feel like we could have explored those themes, as well as our protagonist's feelings of not knowing who she is without the attention of being a star player without so many loooooong scenes describing basketball games, and basketball practice, and basketball warmups, and basketball moves in such great detail.

This is a coming of age story about Mack, the female main character, and her teammate Liv. They’re in high school, hoping to be professional basketball players, and the themes of the book are growing up to (hopefully) maturity, trying to figure out who they are, sexual exploration/orientation, and their interactions with adults, especially authority figures like parents.

It was a difficult read for me. The characters just weren’t very likeable, in my opinion, and they seemed to spend a lot of time doing things that are not age-appropriate, such as using alcohol and drugs. Yes, I’m aware that many kids experiment with these substances and many others, and the writer is telling us the story and that’s part of it. Some of these topics just happen to be sort of touchy for me to read about. I never could seem to engage with Mack and Liv, and by the end of the book, I still didn’t care what happened. I’m absolutely willing to say that your mileage may vary, and I can tell from reading some of the reviews that plenty of readers loved the book.

This one is three stars for me.

I received a copy of the digital ARC via the publisher and NetGalley. My review is voluntary.

It’s taken me a while to put together my thoughts for a review on this one and I think I’ve landed somewhere in the middle on this one. While I was reading I enjoyed the story and the characters, but since the days have passed, I find that a lot of it just hasn’t stuck with me. What did stick with me though was the deep nostalgia that came with this one, and unlike other books that feel very forceful with references, this one was subtle but in a way that I had to pause reading to let myself reminisce on some of the things mentioned. While I appreciated the two main characters, I don’t feel like any of the side characters were written in a memorable or lasting way. There’s a lot of deeper pieces to this one including discussions on love, sexuality, death and grief, and managing pressures as a teen. Overall, I liked and would recommend this if a slower paced, character focused book is up your alley.