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hicklit's review against another edition
5.0
Moments ago, I murmured the last few words of the last couple lines of The Falconer, my heart aching for more pages before the acknowledgements. Not blank ones, but densely populated as preceded in the book. JUST a little more of a glimpse into the dynamics between Lucy and Percy once they are away at college. How she stretches into her own new skin, after morphing into her own island of a vessel, to fill by the end of the book. First loves are everything and nothing at all. They always show you more about yourself than about the elusive person you admire. I had a similar, torn to pieces unrequited love as my first, and this brought back those very same pangs of naïveté, grit, and yearning. In the best possible way of course. Definitely, will reread in the summer, once my heart has recovered from the visceral revival of my own past. The ending was so real and perfect because things can never be summed up like the end of books, not even books. And there goes my tic for one corny sentence a review! I did find myself mouthing, I wonder what happened to her now and thinking to look it up, her character - all the characters in the book felt real.
hannah_book's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.25
megan_martha_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A excellent coming of age, loved the basketball, early 90s and literary references. Brought up lots of high school memories and made me appreciate that version of myself again for all her flaws, hopefulness, and angst.
Would definitely pick up anything else Dana writes.
Would definitely pick up anything else Dana writes.
reuben191919's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
novelvisits's review against another edition
4.0
{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+
More reviews and bookish news at: https://novelvisits.com/
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+
More reviews and bookish news at: https://novelvisits.com/
pappas's review against another edition
5.0
A great read. While the main character is a baller, it’s so much more than that. Lucy is a philosopher goddess. I enjoyed her insights and the colorful people she collected around her. Well worth a read
gdulecki's review against another edition
2.0
Sooooooo I’ll give this a generous 2 stars. I don’t know what it is (maybe my need to people please) but I always feel guilty not liking books. And boy oh boy did I not like this book
k_camrn's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
lilcoop71's review against another edition
3.0
I felt like everything about this book was trying too hard. I’ve read so many books that captured NYC in amazing ways and this was more “look at me, I was in NYC in the 90s!” It was more YA than coming of age and while I really enjoy some YA, this didn’t do it for me. That said, I think the author really captured certain experiences beautifully, like Lucy’s “moment of truth” (being vague here to avoid spoilers). It’s certainly readable and in some moments compelling, but overall I found myself irritated and wanting to be done.
booksnpunks's review against another edition
3.0
The second half of this book was so much better than the first half. I think it’s one that grows on you the further you get into it and will be enjoyed much more on a reread.
Some critics are calling this a ‘new’ Catcher in the Rye. Honestly I don’t know what book they’ve read because this is nothing like the Catcher in the Rye apart from that she’s a 17 year old in New York.
A few things I didn’t like - the main character Lucy is a basketball player but I didn’t enjoy the long passages of narration about basketball games. As someone who doesn’t like sport I found them quite boring. I also HATED Percy who is Lucy’s friend/love interest, and as he takes up the majority of the first half of the novel it really put me off the book at first.
After a certain point (which I won’t spoil, but it’s a very definitive point) the book seems to shift. We see more of Lucy and her friend Alexis at school as the two social outcasts. We see her mother. We see her starving artist sister taking her to bookshops and teaching her about Simone de Beauvoir. We see Lucy really looking at the world around her with interesting monologues, and for me this was where the book really started to bloom. I started to get quite addicted to it near the end, but it was just a shame it took almost half the book to get to this point.
I would recommend this if you like coming of age fiction and New York fiction. Lucy as a character is also wonderful. Though I’m not blown away by this book, by the end it really did comfort me to read about a girl like Lucy and see her going through the same things that I did. I’d like to reread it in the future so I can appreciate the beauty of the second half a lot more.
Some critics are calling this a ‘new’ Catcher in the Rye. Honestly I don’t know what book they’ve read because this is nothing like the Catcher in the Rye apart from that she’s a 17 year old in New York.
A few things I didn’t like - the main character Lucy is a basketball player but I didn’t enjoy the long passages of narration about basketball games. As someone who doesn’t like sport I found them quite boring. I also HATED Percy who is Lucy’s friend/love interest, and as he takes up the majority of the first half of the novel it really put me off the book at first.
After a certain point (which I won’t spoil, but it’s a very definitive point) the book seems to shift. We see more of Lucy and her friend Alexis at school as the two social outcasts. We see her mother. We see her starving artist sister taking her to bookshops and teaching her about Simone de Beauvoir. We see Lucy really looking at the world around her with interesting monologues, and for me this was where the book really started to bloom. I started to get quite addicted to it near the end, but it was just a shame it took almost half the book to get to this point.
I would recommend this if you like coming of age fiction and New York fiction. Lucy as a character is also wonderful. Though I’m not blown away by this book, by the end it really did comfort me to read about a girl like Lucy and see her going through the same things that I did. I’d like to reread it in the future so I can appreciate the beauty of the second half a lot more.