Review: "A Sharp Endless Need" by Mac Crane
A Emotionally Powerful Story of Teenage Obsession and Basketball
Last year, my soul sister Macon Leigh (author of “The Flight Risk”; find her Substack here) raved at me about “A Sharp Endless Need” by Mac Crane, saying that it was one of the best books she had read that year. After reading the summary, I instantly added it to my to-read pile. I played basketball (not that greatly) and was deep in the closet in high school (so deep I didn’t know it existed), so reading a story that tackled both topics really intrigued me. Now that I’ve finished it, I can say that the book more than lived up to the hype. It’s a stunning piece of literature that depicts obsession and self-destruction in a vibrant and emotionally resonant way.
Mack Morris is about to start their senior season as the star point guard for their high school basketball team when twin tragedies strike. First, their closest friend breaks up with them. Then, their dad, the only person in their life almost as obsessed with basketball as they are, suddenly passes away. Mack is left adrift with no one who even remotely gets them, just teammates who look to her for leadership and a mom who demands they commit to a college already. It’s at her dad’s funeral when everything changes: they meet Liv Cooper, a new player who is transferring to their team. Liv is a star shooting guard with a talent and obsession for the game that matches Mack’s. On the court, their electrifying chemistry has the potential to lead them to historic levels of success and college scholarship offers galore. Off the court, their friendship becomes something much deeper and more intoxicating that is allowed in their small Pennsylvania town. As Mack’s desire for Liv grows and adulthood looms larger on the horizon, Mack has to confront the true cost of ambition and decide what they truly want in life.
A Sharp Endless Need wastes no time gripping you by the jersey and making you sit with its themes. The opening prologue is powerful as it introduces both the tone and themes of the entire novel. Immediately, you want to know more about Mack and Liv, their relationship, and their obsession with basketball greatness.
Even after the prologue ends and the story proper begins, the intensity is still there. Mac Crane does a fantastic job portraying Mack’s need for glory and her need for Liv. Through both prose and the narrowed focus of limited first-person POV, we see over and over again both the joys and pains that Mack endures thanks to her obsessions and why they can’t give them up. It’s a story that rings true for anyone who has ever had those queer teenage crushes or all-encompassing hobbies.
When it comes to Mack as a character, there is so much to them that helps us come to understand them and sympathize with them even as they make self-destructive choices. We get to see how their obsession with the game of basketball is in part tied up with their queerness. They’ve never been truly understood by anyone, even their parents. Basketball has become the only place in which people praise them and see them as someone worth knowing, even if they truly don’t see them for who they are. It’s revealed later that basketball is also a place in which Mack can love themself as well, something that broke my heart reading. I remember so vividly how hard it was to love myself before I came out. School was my refuge. For Mack, basketball is theirs. Unfortunately, basketball cannot love Mack back. Neither can Liv. Both can only demand more of Mack until there is nothing left, something that becomes clearer and clearer as the novel progresses.
While A Sharp Endless Need is a story about the self-destructive potential of obsession, there is so much more to the story that really makes it stand out. Mack isn’t the only one that is struggling with her queerness. There’s Liv, who lives under an overbearing mother deadset on making sure her daughter doesn’t turn out gay. In fact, the entire narrative hinges on the fact that while Mack is obsessed with Liv and ready to commit to her, Liv continually waffles and wavers. She gets close only to pull away again, unable to take the final step she is clearly so desperate to take. While part of me wanted to hate Liv for how she treated Mack, I simply couldn’t do anything but sympathize with another scared queer teenager. The same goes for Katrina, another teammate struggles with her queerness.
In short, A Sharp Endless Need is an intimate and emotional novel that will hit you hard with its tone and themes. It’s a story about the struggles with growing up queer in a place that won’t accept you and the self-destructive nature of obsession. It’s a book that any fan of queer sports novels should read. Don’t expect a happy ending, though, but rather an ambiguous one that will leave you contemplating the balance between unrelenting need and self-preservation.