Kirkus Gives “Spin” By Rebecca Caprara a Starred Review

Arachne, the rash mortal who dared to value her weaving skills above those of the goddess Athena, explains herself in this verse rendering drawn from Ovid’s cautionary tale in Metamorphoses.

Young Arachne is bowlegged, ridiculed as ugly, and her family is poor and illiterate. “Don’t let fools define you,” her wise, loving mother tells her. “There are other ways / to make your voice heard.” Arachne will express hers through weaving. Watching her mother place a woven offering on Athena’s altar and sensing the goddess’s indifference, she wonders if the Olympian weaver has ever done anything to earn their worship. Her mother’s patient lessons and her own persistence ultimately make Arachne a weaver. After Arachne acquires a longed-for sibling, baby brother Photis, and a true friend, Celandine, life sweetens for a while. However, as the girls near marriageable age, cascading tragedies engulf Arachne’s family, and Celandine is sexually assaulted. The girls flee to Celandine’s cousin’s city. Arachne’s bitter contempt for capricious deities who rape, impregnate, then abandon the humans they fancy grows as she struggles to understand her own romantic feelings for Celandine. Meanwhile, her weaving brings her renown—and Athena’s enmity. Gifted poet and storyteller Caprara keeps readers engaged, varying the pace, cadence, and emotional shading of Arachne’s passionate refutation of the gods’ ruthless exercise of power and privilege. Her own anger serves her purposes; if speaking truth to power exacts a high price, it’s one she’s willing to pay.

Exciting, richly textured, thought-provoking fare.