The Falconer by Dana Czapnik
Publisher: Atria Books
Release Date: January 29, 2019
Length: 274 pages
Amazon

{A Bit of Backstory}

Single Sentence Summary

Lucy Adler, at 17 she’s a champion basketball player, a bright girl worried starting college, and a vulnerable young woman secretly in love with the boy who’s been her best friend since preschool.

From the Publisher

“New York, 1993. Seventeen-year-old Lucy Adler, a street-smart, trash-talking baller, is often the only girl on the public courts. At turns quixotic and cynical, insecure and self-possessed, Lucy is in unrequited love with her best friend and pick-up teammate Percy, scion to a prominent New York family who insists he wishes to resist upper crust fate….”

The Draw

• I love coming-of-age stories and hadn’t read one in a very long time.
• New York City setting
• Came highly recommended from Catherine at The Gilmore Guide to Books.

{My Thoughts}

What Worked For Me

The Writing, the Writing, the Writing! – Yes, it was that good. I marked so many passages, and could easily of marked many more. Dana Czapnik dug deep inside Lucy imbuing her with so much humanity and wisdom. Even in slower parts of the story, the writing propels you forward, knowing there will be more pearls in another page or two.

“It’s good to be a little lonely. It reminds you of the importance of other people. A person too comfortable in loneliness loses touch with the wonderful things. Laughing alone in a room should always be tinged with a bit of sadness. But a little bit of loneliness serves another purpose too. It’s a good reminder of the small piece of land that is yourself.”

A Girl to Love – I adored everything about Lucy Alder. She was such a rich, multi-layered character: a tremendous basketball player, a sort of social outcast, a friend, a daughter, and a girl with a fragile heart that she was willing to let be broken.

“I ought not to imbue a ball with so much magic, but when I’m holding one I go from Lucy Alder, invisible girl – lowercase I, lowercase g – to Lucy Adler, Warrior Goddess of Manhattan, Island of Many Hills. The court is my phone booth. I am transformed.”

Lucy shares her passion for basketball with Percy, her best friend and the boy her heart longs for.

“…but mostly I like talking to him. Because the world rains arrows and honey whenever he’s near me. Painful and sweet.”

You know it’s not going to end well for Lucy where Percy’s concerned. She turns a blind-eye to Percy’s callous treatment of girls, until he turned on her. Her pain was palpable.

No Melodrama – I so appreciated that with everything Lucy goes through in the months of The Falconer, Czapnik never allowed her story to get overly emotional or to take ridiculous turns. Bad things happened, but Lucy largely took it in stride. She viewed life almost as an observer and I liked her all the more for that. A smart girl, Lucy could see that heartbreak and change were a part of life that everyone goes through. She became a girl to admire.

“I didn’t get a happy ending. But nothing really tragic or even vaguely sad happened either. The universe didn’t punish me for having sex with a guy I knew was a jerk. There wasn’t a loaded consequence. Nothing grand or important came of it. I fell in love with a boy, and he didn’t love me back, and that’s pretty much the whole story.”

It’s not. There’s so much more.

What Didn’t

Slow At Times – For me the story occasionally went on rather random bird walks. They typically showed something about Lucy’s thoughts, but still felt a bit haphazard and not always needed. As I mentioned earlier, Czapnik’s fabulous writing easily moved me through these parts.

{The Final Assessment}

Lucy Alder is a girl you can’t help but love and feel proud of. She is all of us. All women. We’ve been there and we understand. Watching Lucy’s heartbreak and growth is a little bit of a stroll down memory lane. My coming-of-age story, your coming-of-age story, they’re each different, but not that different from Lucy’s. Bravo Dana Czapnik! Grade: B+ 

If you liked this book you might also enjoy:

• Marlena by Julie Buntin – A troubled teen moves to a new area, where her older, much wilder neighbor takes her under her wing. (my review)
• White Fur by Jardine Libaire – An intense rich boy/poor girl love story also set in NYC. (my review)

Disclosure: There are Amazon Associate links included within this post.