cover image The Shadow Behind the Stars

The Shadow Behind the Stars

Rebecca Hahn. S&S/Atheneum, $17.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4814-3571-0

In this delicately crafted tragedy, the three Fates reencounter love, vulnerability, and mortality when Aglaia, the desperate survivor of a raid that destroyed her village, arrives on the island where they have retreated from the too-painful human world. Hahn (A Creature of Moonlight) captures the dueling beauties of human life and inhuman fate in poetic prose; Aglaia's hair "rivaled the white stone walls for blinding glory," while the sisters "must love the beauty of [their] threads, shiver at the mystery that lies at either end." If they stray from their duty of crafting human destinies, the world will end. Chloe, the youngest and, she believes, strongest of the Fates, plans to drown Aglaia rather than risk her sisters becoming entangled with a mortal. But Chloe is not as immune to Aglaia's lure as she thinks, and soon all three are caught up in her efforts to avenge the raid and secure a future for her infant child, the product of rape. While the story is initially slow to get underway, it builds to a conclusion that is satisfying and true. Ages 12%E2%80%93up. (Sept.)