An Arrow to the Moon
by Emily X.R. Pan
High School    Little, Brown    400 pp.    g
4/22    978-0-316-46405-5    $18.99
e-book ed.  978-0-316-46404-8  $9.99

High school seniors Luna Chang and Hunter Yee keep crossing paths, and they soon realize that they both have bizarre abilities. Luna can attract fish and fireflies; Hunter has perfect aim, and gusts of wind inexplicably bring money to his feet. While they fall for each other, a strange series of events takes hold of them and their township—beginning with a massive crack that appears in the street one night when the two are alone on a late bus home. As their feelings for each other deepen, they uncover secrets that span generations; most of the third-person narration alternates between Luna and Hunter’s points of view, but interspersed chapters from other perspectives provide insight into a longstanding feud between their families. In lush prose, Pan (The Astonishing Color of After, rev. 3/18) retells both the Chinese legend of Chang’e and Houyi and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The seemingly ordinary setting of “1991, in Fairbridge, Where We Lay Our Scene” opens up to a world full of mystery and magic.

From the May/June 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.