I was immediately drawn into A Sharp Endless Need. The relationship between Mack and Liv felt authentic and messy. I especially appreciated how the writing balanced sharp prose with moments of vulnerability, giving weight to both the athletic and emotional stakes. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

I really don’t understand basketball, but I love confused lesbians trying to navigate life. I do wish the ending was a little more fleshed out, I didn’t feel satisfied with the openness of the ending.

A gorgeous coming of age tale full of lush prose and emotion that pulled me into the pages and gripped my heart in a vice. One of those "I can't believe this is a debut" kind of books. Marisa Crane is a huge new talent and I can't wait to see what she does next.

In this coming-of-age story, a young adult, Mack Morris, experiences life as a high school jock after their dad passes away, and the arrival of a transfer student named Liv Cooper. As they play side by side for their high school basketball team, the two discover their undeniable, electric chemistry on the court. Off the court, they fall into a similar more-than-friendship relationship that is intoxicating. In a small Pennsylvania town, this relationship feels out-of-bounds. While Mack struggles between the need to be ambitious and self-destructive, the decision of what kind of life they want to fight for looms in the distance.

While this book is a coming of age story, there are some juvenile (secondary) school behavior but also some mature themes that are so real, it’s heavy. Trigger warnings for rape; drug use; parent death.

I felt like this book could be best described as a DCOM from the 2000’s but it has more HBO-esque scenes and language.

This is chock full of heavy topics (described previously) that I don’t really want to give much else away since it’s a journey.

Thank you to Random House for sending this to me. It released on May 13, 2025.

I was not ready for how bleak this story was going to be! It immediately had sapphic Euphoria vibes, with lots of basketball practices and games added. As the story progressed, there was so much trauma and tragedy. The ending was so abrupt that I had to ask my friend if we found out what happened next or if we were left with things hanging in the balance. It was shocking!

A Sharp Endless Need by Marisa Crane is beautifully written and emotionally raw novel, with a gripping queer coming-of-age story at its core. The chemistry between Mack and Liv really stands out and there’s a lot to appreciate in how it explores identity, grief, and longing. I found myself pulled in by the emotion and the honesty of the characters, and there were moments that really stuck with me. While the pacing dragged a bit at times (especially with the basketball scenes) and the drug use felt a bit over the top, I still came away feeling like it was a worthwhile, memorable read.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for the review ebook. All opinions are my own.

Beautiful and so deeply sad. Incredible writing but a lot definitely went over my head. It was a really thrilling read through all the tumult.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

This story is compelling and haunting and all of the self-discovery mixed with the basketball? It was so welll done and gosh the love story was beautiful. It was tragic, and passionate, and the trauma was intense and never-ending it felt like. The slow burn was evoking sadness and desire and just - gosh, it was all so damn bittersweet.

Overall this story is incredibly powerful and profoundly moving.

Crane's debut novel is one of my favorite books of all time!! However this fell a bit flat for me. It was very scenic and moody , but I feel like I couldn't fully grasp the town's vibe because we were so in the main character's head. I loved the romance of the girls but was sad how it all ended so quickly, but I see it was a metaphor. As a basketball fan, the rush I felt reading the game scenes were incredible. I loved seeing her tackle a romance and would love to see Crane write a literary fiction after this.

I think my reading of this was colored by a soccer-heavy but somewhat similar novel that I read last week— and I couldn’t help but compare the 2. This one: beautiful, lyrical, immersive writing that made me care about high school basketball when I didn’t think that I did. But there was something that felt a little disjointed about the plot, and it wasn’t my favorite.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

(3.5 ⭐️)

I thought this one had the potential to become a new favorite. I love coming-of-age stories. I did not realize how big of a role that basketball was going to play in the story, however, and that really left me feeling disconnected and unengaged. But I did love the writing style and tone, so I'd try something else from this author in the future. I think if you're more into sports, you'll love this one more than I did.

Really good for this age group - enjoyed the story and the characters.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review

This coming-of-age story is raw, sensory, and beautifully immersive. The writing is so tactile and precise. It was so easy to feel the grit of a high school locker room, the blinding heat outside a 7-Eleven, the electric current of desire and confusion that defines adolescence. It’s full of yearning and self-discovery, with teenagers stumbling through mistakes, lust, and drugs, yet never too unrealistic. I ached for the main character, Mack. We hear her insecurities loud and clear while the plot moves quietly around her. As anyone who’s been through it knows, when you’re in it, senior year is the whole world, everything changes. It’s beyond true for Mack. This book captures that chaotic moment so well, the longing, the weight of self-doubt, and the fragile, painful process of becoming yourself. The basketball subplot didn’t fully land for me, but the tension and stakes around it did. I could see this becoming a powerful movie adaptation. Paired with the right score, it would be unforgettable. Quiet, aching, and vividly real, give this one a read.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Dial Press for access to this book.

Good but a little meandering, which I guess is an adequate portrayal of adolescence. Strong writing but kind of hard to care about the characters and their youth is understandable and frustrating at the same time.

i went into this book expecting your typical high school sports story. i was entirely in the wrong. this may be about young characters, but it explored everything from living in a small town, to grief, to growing into yourself as a human being. 4 stars, and i would definitely recommend it to anyone not looking for a fluffy book.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for the gifted early copy.

This is a coming of age set in a smaller town. Basketball is another main theme here and I admit it went over my head; however, I recognize what the author did with the book structure and parallels and this was a very unique and creative move.
Coming of age are hit or miss for me, but I really liked this one and the exploration of character identities.
I think I wanted more outside of the MC head, but I recognize this is not that kind of book.
I enjoyed it, but not sure this will stand the test of time for me personally, but will recommend to others.

The longing! The yearning! A SHARP ENDLESS NEED by Marisa Crane captures the deep connection between Mack Morris and Mack's new basketball teammate Liv Cooper. Once the two players connect, their yearning for each other permeates every sentence. It's palpable on the page. The descriptions of Mack and Liv playing together on the court is stunning. I have never played basketball but my partner did; she's taught me quite a bit while watching WNBA games. Marisa Crane's description of the basketball plays brings it all to life in breathless glory. There is magic "watching" Mack and Liv play together.

Off the court, Mack is a heartbreaking character. Mack's funny and real and so heartbroken over the loss of their father. It has left Mack unmoored with a bottomless loss. The fatherly relationship Mack develops with Coach is very believable, offering a very different yet very effective alternate parent-child relationship.

The inner homophobia of Liv and Mack is also believable. It's also extremely hard to see how destructive it is as well. Though understandable, I do question a few parts of the story (which I will not spoil) and why the author found them to be relevant to readers now. One aspect in particular felt right out of early Hollywood depictions of sapphic characters.

This was a really good read and I think it had a decent writing style and story! Would recommend to anyone looking for next read

I enjoyed this book!. It was far less about the romance than it was about the themes of identity and narrow-mindedness, grief and coping, and the pressures and struggles of greatness and prestige. And as it takes place in small-town Pennsylvania circa 2004, it was more than just slightly nostalgic for me (I graduated from a very small town Pennsylvania high school in 2003). Being only a year older than these characters were in this book. I could really relate to the struggles and the identity crises they suffered.

Mac is a local high school basketball star who has her whole world in front of her. She is a star on the court and has her pick of D-1 basketball scholarships from all across the country to choose from. She is used to being a star and used to being the center of attention. She has no aspirations or goals aside from playing basketball in college and then professionally. She is friends with her teammates but still is a bit of a lone wolf and definitely enjoys feeling special, seeing D-1 scouts in the stands every time she plays, fielding phone calls from coaches begging her to join their teams, and getting recognized off the court, especially when she is in Philly watching her beloved Sixers play. When Mac's dad dies from a heart attack, suddenly, she is thrown a little off-kilter. Her dad was always her number one fan and treated her more like the son he never got to have than a daughter. At his celebration of life service, she meets Liv, another stellar basketball star joining her team this year, and this meeting will change the course of Mac's life forever.

Mac and Liv instantly find themselves drawn to each other and their chemistry on and off the court is electrifying and opens up a part of Mac that she has been struggling with setting free in her narrow minded small town. In 2004, coming out was not the kind of thing it is today, and judgments and stereotypes abounded in their small town. Back then there was no Pride Month, no affirmation of being different or true to yourself, no community to help with the transition. Being gay was still seen as a perversion of sorts, and after meeting Liv and finding that missing piece of herself, she struggles with keeping it hidden and the prejudices and condemnation she is sure will follow. She yearns for the acceptance she knows she will find in college, but still struggles with making a decision on which school to attend and play for, so crippled with the idea of making the wrong decision that she becomes widly indecisive about everything.

Liv on the other hand, seems much more sure of herself, and opens Mac up to change, but seems very determined to squash the sexual part of her identity, choosing to stay with an asshole (but very hot) boyfriend all the while leading Mac on, and encouraging Mac to date one of the guys on her boyfriend's team, but then showing immediate and petulant jealousy when Mac sleeps with him in the backseat of her car. Liv was not my favorite character, and although there was some dynamism to her character, I found her behavior in a lot of ways abhorrent.

So what I thought was a basketball romance was more a coming of age novel in a time and setting I could really relate to. Looking back, there were very very few openly gay students that I graduated with (there were those we suspected, that eventually came out later) and reading this book makes me wonder if they were feeling a lot like Mac and Liv were in this novel. And if so it makes me really sad that I grew up in a time when people didn't feel free to be themselves. And in that respect, I really appreciated and enjoyed this book. I also found it bonus points that what I thought was a high school romance ended up being a coming of age novel involving a pretty toxic relationship at its core. Liv's constant flirting and leading Mac on, even getting physical at times, was in direct contrast to her prudish behavior and obvious discomfort when confronted with characters who were openly gay and proud of it when she and Mac do a college visit and stay with one of Liv's old teammates. Conversely, Mac becomes much more open and comfortable when in the same situations, finally feeling that she can be completely herself when surrounded by such openness and lack of judgement. I enjoy the way this author explored this dichotomy between the two lead characters by providing such situations and how each character reacted to those circumstances. It was what I enjoyed most about the book.

What didn't work for me was the ending. I found it rushed and incongruent with the pacing of the rest of the book. It also left so many questions and not enough answers. I also hated the epilogue and found it unnecessary and weirdly ambiguous ( not in a good way, in a WTF way). It took a 4 star book almost down a whole star, but I settled on a 3.5 since I enjoyed the first three quarters so much. I couldn't help but see some of the author's own personal touches as I read that they grew up in a small Pennsylvania town and also was a college basketball star. I always love when I read about an author and find that some of their own history parallels their writing which I think was the case here.

So 3.5 stars for something that I would probably never have picked up if I wasn't invited to so many thanks to Random House and Netgalley for putting this on my radar!

Beautifully introspective and quietly devastating. Crane explores identity and desire with lyrical prose and emotional honesty. It’s not a plot-heavy book, but the atmosphere and internal depth were mesmerizing. A tender and raw literary experience