Christine Salek

I’ve never read a book like Mac Crane’s A Sharp Endless Need (out May 13, 2025) 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.