A SHARP ENDLESS NEED is the teenage coming-of-age story that didn't know I needed on the cusp of turning forty. It smoldered, burned, reminded me of what it meant to feel alive & what it means to keep living. Beautifully written, aching and particular. I know nothing about basketball and would read Mac Crane writing about basketball forever. Gorgeous, moving, smart, painful, and hopeful.

The struggle is this book is painful to read. It is unfortunate that we live in a world where this is the reality. Definitely a great story of longing for something that you’re afraid to have.

The tension in this book… wow! This was such a beautiful story about girlhood, identity, and finding your sexuality. I absolutely loved the writing and was so invested in this story.

A queer, coming-of-age young adult novel. Mack, a high school basketball player loses her dad and while she is grieving his death, meets Liv, a new girl in school who is her teammate. Full of teenage angst and longing, this one would be a hit for readers who are here for the feels rather than the plot, anyone who likes basketball (there's a lot there) and those who enjoy coming-of-age stories.

I’m always drawn to a good coming-of-age story, and this one had so much potential with themes like grief, first love, and identity. I think I'm in the minority with my rating because while some moments resonated with me, others, including the ending, felt a bit rushed.

I was on a lot of teams in high school, but this story leaned quite heavily into basketball terminology, which was a little overwhelming for me since I’m not particularly into the sport. I also think LGBTQ+ readers might find certain moments more meaningful and relatable than I did.

Overall, it’s not a bad read, just not one that kept me completely hooked.

Thank you to The Dual Press via netgalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Review will be posted (Instagram, Goodreads, bookishlytara blog, Storygraph) on April 29, 2025. An additional post (with a reposted review) will be posted on Instagram on the publication day as well as an Amazon Canada review. (links below as available

I absolutely loved this book. The story follows basketball star Mack Morris during her senior year, as she grapples with the grief of losing her Dad and the stress of how society handles her queer identity. Mack was a fully fleshed out character and I understood her choices, her pain, and sometimes her joy. The world around her was also so clear in my mind, from her house to the (nearly) abandoned court she often plays at. I also felt connected to so many of the characters, who each had their own identity and whose motivations I understood. I especially connected to Mack's BFF / crush Liv, and her coach who is truly to do the best he can for his players. The ending had quite the twist and gave me a lot to think about, but I don't want to spoil anything here.

[arc review]
Thank you to Random House Publishing Group for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
A Sharp Endless Need releases May 13, 2025

5+

<i>“We watched, we reveled, we lusted after a forever we couldn’t yet conceive.”</I>

Perfection. Forehead kisses to the team at The Dial Press who know me so well and sent this title my way. They consistently publish the best character-driven novels that are stripped bare, full of heart, and show honest human experiences that touch you in the most indelible ways.

Marisa Crane delivers such a wonderfully delicate exploration of intimacy and desire, with prose that is passionate, self-assured, lyrical, and daring enough to turn any sports-averse reader into a loyal fan.
Set in a rural town, two girls on the same basketball team test the limits of their queerness and their hunger to be known, wanted — to get as far away from loneliness as they can.

This coming-of-age novel effortlessly transports you back to the early 2000s and navigates grief, self-discovery, and complex (often unforgiving) family dynamics in such a poignant and evocative way.
By structuring Mack and Liz’s story like a basketball game, it solidified the art that is captured both on and off the courts, and the intensity of all-consuming friendships, of being seen, and knowing someone as well as you know yourself.

cw: drug use, SA


<i>“It felt like we were collaborating on something that predated language. Something so primitive you could only revert to that wild state by pushing your body to ill-advised limits. By pushing so hard that you eventually found what was on the other side of fear. Of loneliness. What we found in each other was a recognition so potent, so concentrated, we could hardly stomach it.”

“I knew this wasn’t unique to our town, I knew there were miserable people everywhere. It wasn’t that I thought the rest of the world was happy, I just thought the rest of the world might grant me the opportunities for new types of misery. Things like going through my first real breakup with a girl, one who would kiss me in public and call me her girlfriend—I would have welcomed that novel pain.”

“I found myself thinking about beauty, what it was, all the things we got wrong about it, all the ways we misunderstood it. I thought whatever beauty was, its opposite wasn’t ugliness, but sanity, sense. Liv was so beautiful I felt insane.”

“What had happened […] had been real. Even if just for a moment. Even if the aftermath threatened to dismantle them both. And maybe that was what I wanted—to be decimated beyond recognition so I would have no choice but to rebuild, without the influence of others.”</I>

I think I understand basketball now.

There is a lot going on but its strung together well, The main character navigates grief while falling in love for the first time and coming to term with her sexuality. There is a good amount of teen angst and drug use, but also very reflective on ones identity. It was a little long winded at times and I didn't find the characters all that likable -- I wouldn't say this book was for me but I still think it was worth the read.

For you if you enjoy: basketball, yearning, and a queer coming of age story.

A Sharp Endless Need by Marisa Crane is a book that I was highly anticipating because it seemed like something I would love but there was just something about the writing that I couldn’t connect to. I tried to get into the story but found myself putting the book down often and just not wanting to read it. I dnfed this book at 70 percent. I do think this is a book that will work for a lot of people and I know who to recommend this story to. It just wasn’t for me unfortunately. I do plan on reading more by this author in the future because I think they could have a book I will love.

This was interesting in a way that I didn’t expect. I enjoyed this story very much. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me this arc.

Three ‘books’ were mentioned in the blurb that I had read and enjoyed:
“Nothing To See Here” by Kevin Wilson
“Pizza Girl” by Jean Kyong Frazier
“Call Me By Your Name” by Andre Aciman
as well was a movie called “Love & Basketball” ……
So ???
I ask….”wouldn’t you highly consider reading THIS book too?
“A Sharp Endless Need”? ….even if you were an old fart 72 - straight female - married 46 years?

….The main characters are young. I’m not young.
….The main characters play basketball. I don’t play basketball ball.
….The young characters are exploring-grappling-discovering- and becoming accustomed to their sexual identity. I’m way past the age of pondering or coming to terms with my sexuality.
….Our small town Pennsylvania young senior high school protagonists students: McKenzie (Mack) Morris and Liv Cooper …. both have unresolved issues with their parents. It’s not an issue I have.
….Both Mack and Liv are worried about their futures….including going to the right college. Not an issue for me either.
….The girls party hard…indulge in drinking and drugs. That was never me …..
So???
Did I enjoy this Lesbian, Queer, LGBT contemporary coming-of-age -young adult - young love- romance-sports-(🏀) novel?
*YES*!!!!

The overall reading ‘feeling’ was intimate, passionate, and real.
However…the endless complicated issues High School students deal with today seem much more challenging than when I was a straight lace innocent pom-pom girl.
Bless our young people!!! My heart goes out to all of them!

A few excerpts I thought were beautiful….(the entire book is beautifully written):
“We wanted to live forever. Who could blame us? We wanted to live Ballin hand, ball against backboard, ball, licking the bottom of the net. We wanted to be in history books. For what? We didn’t know. We certainly weren’t the first to do anything.—not to ball, not to win, not to lose, not to suffer, but that didn’t matter. To us, basketball was a historical record of all the ways a body can move with, and for another. What could be better than the strange and perverse pleasure of being known?”

“On the court, we were married. The referee whistles like wedding bells ringing inside our chests. Only, we didn’t call it a marriage. We called it shared language, tongue-heavy language, locked-and-loaded language, the most reliable form of communication. One bound not by syntax, but by rhythm, by the beat, beat, beat of human music, by the simultaneous seeing and knowing of another”.

“The game bonded us in a way words could only dream of. And if we had an animal instinct, a panther prowl on the court, then basketball had a hound dog nose. It could sniff out and track our desires before those desires had even arisen in us. That’s what we needed, what we counted on”.

“Some people said basketball was like dancing, you needed rhythm, you needed to feel the ball’s desire like you needed your heart to beat right, but we knew, in the deeps of our hips, that basketball was even more erotic than dancing; it was a collaboration, a mutual creation way of fucking without touching”.

🏀📘✍️❤️ Lovely depth - beauty - and achievement.
Congratulations to

i loved this, but i also hated it
the ending???? HELLO
aside from that, the yearning, the uncertainty, the repressed feelings, the compulsory heteronormativity...it was all so relatable and i think every young queer person could learn something about themselves through reading this.

I want to start off by saying I could tell from the start that this book wouldn't be for me. The writing style is one that I typically don't enjoy. I’m not very knowledgeable with basketball, so there were many parts of the book where I couldn’t visualize or relate to. While this book isn’t for me, I know there would be people out there who would enjoy it. Thank you for the ARC!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group / Dial Press for providing this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
—
3.5 stars

I’m really conflicted on how to rate this book because although the author beautifully worded different experiences and feelings, I constantly had to fight to stay engaged because of the slow pace of the story.

I can understand why the author chose to make the main characters high schoolers but I wish they were older to make more sense of the constant alcohol and drug use as well as some of the very deep reflections that you wouldn’t expect a 17 year old to say. There were also a lot of side plots and characters that we started to learn about but didn’t get much of a resolution for.

Despite this not being the most enjoyable book for me, I’m still happy I read it and would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a slow paced literary fiction that makes you think. If you love reading about queer experiences and particularly if you love basketball, this would be a great book for you. Definitely check the trigger warnings before picking it up though.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Random House, and Madison for reaching out to me about this ARC!

I absolutely loved this book! From the detail to what is going in in the basketball games, to the mundane things going on in the life of Mack and her relationship with her family, friends, coaches, and her growing interest in Liv, Everything is so well written! I felt so engaged and was going from chapter to chapter for more! The only thing that did feel a bit off was the excessive amount of alcohol and substance use. While I personally am not someone familiar with such lifestyle, I do find it a bit excessive in the book for them to be drinking almost every chapter, and having little to no consequences of having people reprimand them, or feeling the repercussions of the act itself.

I also loved how conflicted Mack is when she is trying to come to terms with her own feelings. Teen years are always the most confusing and conflicting, and Marissa did an amazing job interpreting those feelings and how one usually goes about it. It's now always black and white on what we do growing up, but there are also morally grey, and Mack is a perfect example of that in her actions and the things she says and does. From coming to terms with the passing of her father, to the affection she learns to nurture for those around her and for herself.

I was immediately drawn to this book by the promise of basketball and young queer love and it did not disappoint. Mack is a star rising, in the quest to be a god on the court. As we follow her story, she deals with the loss of her father, the pressure of how to reach her dreams, as well as the feelings that come with being a lesbian in a small town in the early 2000’s. In order to deal with these feelings, she uses vices as an escape. Through her journey of self discovery, themes of gender, sexuality, regret and the need to become known are explored.

I felt that this book was very relatable for me as I was once a young queer kid growing up in south. There were parts where Mack denies feelings and lies to friends in order to hide who she truly is. The feeling of shame and wanting to not be attracted to women resonated with me because they were the same feelings I had growing up. I am so glad that stories like these are being told because they are so important in making LGBTQ+ people feel seen. I also enjoyed all of the nods to small town Pennsylvania as a transplant to PA. I could tell the author was from here and knew what they were talking about.

Overall, the story was interesting and I was so invested in Mack’s journey. This book made me feel so much and left me devastated. The basketball scenes were very fun and the chemistry Mack had on the court with Liv was electric. I was rooting so hard for Mack to get the ending she deserved. I would highly recommend this coming of age story to a sapphic audience as well as fans of the WNBA.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me with the e-ARC of this book.

Marisa Crane’s A Sharp Endless Need is about basketball the way most good sports stories are about weed-smoking Amish tweens, funeral hook-ups, and using Icy Hot as a personality.

The novel follows Mackenzie, a point guard with real talent and a scholarship on the line, just months after her dad dies suddenly. She’s trying to hold together her future while the ground keeps shifting under her. Then Liv shows up—a new teammate, sharp shooter, harder to read, with her own reasons for needing a fresh start. What unfolds between them isn’t clean or easy. It’s layered, messy, and often hard to name. But it’s also full of recognition. The kind that’s hard to fake and harder to forget.

Crane knows basketball inside and out, and it shows. The writing is precise and physical. The language sweats. You feel the drills, the bruises, the rituals of a team that trains like family and sometimes hurts like one too. There’s real attention here to what it means to move in sync with someone else. What it means to trust the body before the words come. Especially when you’re queer. Especially when the game is the only place you feel fully alive.

There’s no romance arc in the traditional sense. The pull between Mackenzie and Liv doesn’t follow a straight line, and it doesn’t need to. Crane lets the space between them stretch, bend, ache, and reshape itself over time. That’s part of what makes the book feel honest. It’s not a story about coming out. It’s a story about coming closer—to yourself, to someone else, to the kind of connection that doesn’t always have a name but keeps showing up anyway.

Crane also writes clearly about class, debt, and survival. Mackenzie doesn’t just want to play. She needs to. Her future depends on it. And when she gets hurt, or distracted, or scared, she doesn’t get to fall apart. She just has to keep going. That pressure sits heavy on every page. The adults in her life are trying, failing, missing the point. Her mom is overwhelmed. Her dad is gone. Her coach is a hoarder who pays her to clean his house. It’s not subtle, and it’s not supposed to be. That’s what makes it real.

If you’ve read I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself, you know Crane’s writing holds contradiction well. This book does too. It’s looser, more straightforward, and less stylized—but no less sharp. Where Exoskeletons was about shame and surveillance, A Sharp Endless Need is about movement and hunger. What it feels like to want something so badly your whole body rearranges to reach for it.

I can’t say for sure that this is a love story. But it is a story about being known. Which, depending on who you ask, might be the same thing.

The world doesn't always see you the way you see yourself and becoming yourself is hard if no one sees life the way you do.

This is a story about teenagers, of young girls who play basketball. But what happens out of basketball. When Mack meets Liv, she secretly falls in love, death, drugs, alcohol, and the fear of life cause a lot of pain for these two ladies. Marisa Crane done a great job of telling a coming-of-age story and how the world in a small Pennsylvania town viewed same sex relationships. There was so much angst in the story and I felt it with every piece of me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love media about people obsessed with their sports, and was really excited about this book specifically because of the sapphic romance. However, I found the characters to be unrealistic 17 year olds, and that kind of threw me off because no 17 year old talks like that. Other than that, I really enjoyed learning more about basketball and reading about a girl who lives to play.

Stories about the all-consuming friendships and relationships between girls are my personal catnip. So this book being about Mack and Liv navigating their intense feelings for each other while playing on the same basketball team their senior year of high school really appealed to me. I loved how the book was exploring their complicated dynamic in the early 2000s and their relationship to basketball. Marisa Crane’s writing was gorgeous and made a lot of the settings and emotions jump off the page.

But while there was a lot about the book that I really enjoyed, overall this wasn’t a complete win for me. I ended up feeling like parts of the book were repetitive while other things felt completely glossed over. Sometimes the emotions were fully explored, but then at other times I felt like I was being kept at arm’s length from the characters. The ending of the story seemed so abrupt.

I think if you enjoy stories about complex queer girls, sports, and difficult family relationships then you should give this book a shot.