This one just wasn't for me. Partly because I'm not really into basketball and partly because I think I'm just not that into coming of age stories. Or perhaps just not coming of age stories set in high school? That said, I think if you are into either of those genres, you will like this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC.

I don’t know that I’ve ever read a more intelligently written book. The truth, the pain, the real parts of it all. There aren’t a lot of authors willing to write the truth, which seems like exactly what this book was. The difficulty of being young and gay and not knowing what to do with those feelings or how to cope is not lost on me. Excellent book.

This is such a sweet and realistic look at young love and the lengths young people will go to to try to hide it or change themselves!

A Sharp Endless Need is a coming-of-age literary fiction novel centered on Mack Morris as she enters her senior year of high school while dealing with the death of her father and the arrival of transfer student Liv. Mack faces both her grief and desires head on as she wade through looming college decision and the intoxicating chemistry with Liv.

This book touched on such real topics in such a respected and serious way. This coming-of-age book was about more than first loves, and a desire to be grate and play a game. It was about desire, intimacies, figuring out oneself, grief, complicated parental relationships, sexual identity, gender identity, and perfectionism all set in a small backwoods town in Pennsylvania in 2004. Crane delivers all these topics in such a poetic way, that it just seeps into your brain.

A Sharp Endless Need is a beautiful sapphic coming-of-age story, focused on two basketball players who live in a small conservative town. The dialogue and writing here was sharp and thought provoking, and I loved how the author wove together sports and grief. A lot of the characters and their struggles will stick with me, as will the ending. If you aren't into sports like me, there's still plenty to like and connect with, and I recommend giving it a try if you like coming of age stories. The writing was my favorite part of the book, and I hope to read more from this author!

I'm going to be honest, I really wanted to like this but the basketball talk lost me as I don't really care or connect with that; I feel like if I did I could have enjoyed it better. Personally I didn't connect with the characters either and that's the most important thing to me, not because I don't identify with them, but because I felt disconnected from the writing itself.

throughly (and surprisingly) enjoyed this book! this wasnt something I would have picked out for myself but I found myself really enticed with the story!

thank you netgalley for the arc!

Oof.

This book was incredible. Both about so much, but also, kind of nothing at all?

We follow a highschool basketball phenomenon throughout her senior year, and see the highs and lows that come with it - the pressure, the lack of self assurance, the relationships, the discovering of yourself.

Despite being about a highschooler, this isn’t a YA book - there’s real adult issues being faced and discussed (not saying it’s not appropriate for a highschooler, but if you’re an adult who usually doesn’t read young main characters, give this one a try!).

I love this author. I appreciate, as a lesbian, having lesbian representation. Being almost 40, there wasnt much when I was growing up. If I had this kind of work in my early 20s I might not have made some choices I did and regret. I find this author so funny. Her humor is smart, genuine and if you are a lesbian, even funnier bc its all so true. Theres also a lot of heart in this work. Connection is everything. Lack of it is toxic. Sometimes the wrong connections are toxic too and I think thats the growth humans are tasked to choose.

Rated 4.5 on StoryGraph.

A Sharp Endless Need follows star basketball player, Mack, as she starts her senior year and is struggling to decide what D1 school to commit to. Her father has just died and left her and her mother drowning in gambling debts. At his funeral she meets Liv, who is also a star basketball player and transferring to her school; the two instantly connect on and off the court. This emotional and heart wrenching book explores Mack's complicated and intense friendship with Liv, questioning identities, drug use, the pressure of perfection, regrets, grief, complicated parental relationships, the overwhelming question of the future, and basketball.

I am not a sports person at all, but I decided to give this book a try because I loved Marisa Crane's I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself so much. Basketball is not an insignificant easily overlooked aspect of this book, it is an ode to basketball as much as anything else. However, the book spoke about basketball with such intensity, passion, and poetry that I could overlook my usual boredom about sports. The plot and the characters were compelling and beautifully written. While most of Mack's high school experience was extremely different from mine, I still related to her so much. I would highly recommend this book.

Thanks to Random House, The Dial House, and NetGalley for this advanced copy.

Marisa Crane should be a best-selling author...and then some. Her writing is an art form all its own--beautiful and addictive. Not only did I feel like I was right there next to the characters, living these experiences alongside them; but she captures the setting, the feelings, the characters, the emotions all so exquisitely, there aren't proper words to describe it. There were parts of this book where I felt like she reached right into my experience, wrote it down, and let me relive it all over again. And the ending. Chapter 22 is one of my favorite chapters of any book I've ever read. Magnificent and heartbreaking, but healing. Sad, but hopeful. I just kept saying "ouch" as I read her words. She is absolutely a poet and I highlighted so many beautiful pieces I will probably reread an embarrassing amount of times. I'd love to share them here, but that would be a disservice. Read this book the second you can. It is nostalgic and I already feel the hangover from having been broken by it. For the love of all that is holy, Marisa, write a thousand more.

It's hard to describe exactly how I feel after reading this book. I nearly DNF at about the 35% mark because I wasn't invested in reading about basketball plays, but I decided to keep reading, and I'm glad I did.

The novel starts very heavy on the basketball talk and game-play descriptions, but the rest is focused more on the main characters. Crane did an amazing job describing what so many teens were facing in the early 2000s regarding self-discovery and figuring out their sexuality, gender identity, and path in life. I was invested in the characters, and it was easy for me to place myself beside them, see their struggles, and pull for them to succeed.

I grew up in a small town with conservative parents and a sister who was heavily into sports and privately figuring out her sexuality during her high school years in the early 2000s. So much of this book made me feel like I was reading about my own sister's experiences. It's not often that a story lines up so well with pieces of my life, but even without the similarities, the way the characters were written was so well done I felt like they were my friends, teammates, or family.

Despite really connecting with the middle of the story, I didn't feel quite as satisfied with the ending. It felt loose compared to the rest of the book, and all the build-up of the novel didn't reach the peak I was expecting.

I'm rating this book 3.5 stars because it was a bit too heavy on the description of basketball plays (which I felt took away from the story), but it still was a tragically human story that pulled at my heart.

Thank you to NetGalley and The Dial Press for an ARC of this book!

This is a little out of my normal realm of my reading tastes, but I enjoyed this one so much.

teen girl angst in a rural small town. the search for purpose beyond the tiny small town we see these characters in pulled at my heartstrings.

a lovely, thoughtful read

Both Mackenzie and Liz struggle with their feelings for each other and the need to keep their same sex attraction a secret in this beautiful queer sports romance/thriller. I thought the language used to describe the struggles and joys of young love was beautiful and I enjoyed it immensely. I am not one for anything sports related so some things were a bit difficult to understand, but I know many readers are fiendish for this type of novel and this is really a perfect addition to this genre.

I've never read a book like Mac Crane’s "A Sharp Endless Need" before because I never thought a book quite like this would exist.

Some necessary context: I'm queer and nonbinary; I write fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; I'm a former basketball player; and more recently I was a women's basketball journalist for several years. As I immersed myself in the latter space, I relished any opportunity to find others whose lives also married this trifecta of queer + creative writer + basketball person. When I discovered Crane's work, learned they played basketball in college (for a program I'd written about!), and got to know their passionate writing about the game, I became a fan. And this was years before this particular book was announced! So that's where I'm coming from here — this book satisfyingly fills a niche for me that I've been trying to carve out for myself.

"A Sharp Endless Need" is a coming-of-age story about Mack, a high school basketball star whose father dies shortly before her senior season. At her father's celebration of life she meets Liv, who easily wins a game of knockout (essentially, a shooting contest) and promptly announces she's transferring to Mack's school for her senior year. What follows is a tumultuous, lustful relationship that lives its best life on the basketball court as the girls' games fit together effortlessly. Off the court, though, it's a different story. A constant refrain for Mack is that basketball is everything, her whole life. She's not sure what her life could look like outside of basketball, whether in the case of her eventual retirement or the time spent in between high school games and practices. Throughout the story, Mack juggles the complexities that Liv (and her boyfriend) presents, the loss of her father, her relationships with friends and family on and off the court, homophobia (both external and internal) and even an undercurrent of Gender Feelings, and the impending deadline to commit to a Division I program.

Crane's writing is poetic, intimate, and visceral. So many times, I gasped and highlighted a couple of sentences because they had both vividly described a feeling and succinctly summarized it, as if to make absolute sure we were on the same page. I've never thought about basketball before the way Crane has so carefully, lovingly written about it, and I'm not sure I'll ever think of basketball the same again. If anything, "A Sharp Endless Need" heightened my love of the game.

Last thing: I've read a couple of reviews that take issue with Crane's portrayals of elite athletes doing drugs and drinking heavily. Although it wasn't my personal experience, it was absolutely the case that many of the best athletes in my high school were also the biggest partiers. Not only are Mack's actions true to life, they don't feel out of place in the narrative, either. That's just...high school.

(Oh, and as someone who went to Gonzaga and attended every women's basketball game as a member of the pep band, obviously loved the mention.)

Thanks to Random House, The Dial Press, and NetGalley for the ARC!

literary lesbian basketball romance? awesome idea. and the way it's executed is incredible, 5 stars. tysm for hte arc.

This was a gorgeous and life-altering read. Absolutely loved this queer basketball romance, it was lovely and heart-wrenching all at once.

got an advance copy in exchange for a review! thanks netgalley!

I absolutely loved this book when I started it. I think the ending might have lost me a little bit, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. A very very good coming of age book with a very distinct vibe to it. I forget where it’s set exactly, but I could picture myself there. I was never top of any sport, but I got the feeling of dedication to something, to the point of obsession. But even though I might not have lived most of the main character’s experiences, I related to the emotions. They’re written very well, where you understand what they’re feeling and thinking and why they do what they do. It all feels like that hazy night time feeling when you’re in high school and you feel like the world is ending but also you’re on top of it.

Overall, a very good queer coming of age story that takes you into the heat of basketball. LOVED the set up in that sense. I only have recently begun to understand basketball (boiler up), but i did feel very proud of myself for understanding what they were talking about with basketball (most of the time). I would definitely recommend checking this one out. I’m not good at putting it in words, but you feel like you’re in this book. The love of the game! Feeling a little like the world is ending because you’re graduating! That insane friendship that is definitely more than a friendship! Wow! Read it

Thank you Netgalley for this arc. I enjoyed this book, it was really good, and entertaining. It held my attention throughout the whole book. Thank you for allowing me to arc read this. I rated this a 4 stars.

Pretty conflicted on this one. Part of me wants to rate it 5 stars for the perfect portrayal of unrequited queer love as a teenager but the other half thinks it’s deserving of one star for the last 20 pages. I do think the author juggled basketball language well with still keeping it an obsessive, confusing love story but I just wanted more!