The first time I read Josephine Angelini’s Dreamless, the second book in the Starcrossed trilogy, I am fairly certain I did nothing else for the entire day. My husband must have taken care of our young children and I must have somehow eaten meals, but I could not put this book down and attend to any of the realities or necessities of my life until I followed this episode of the story to its end. 

Helen Hamilton, endowed with many demigod powers, is the Descender: she is able to go down to the Underworld when she falls asleep. In fact, she is unable not to descend, although her nightly task seems to be draining her of all energy and ruining her health. Her task once she descends? She is the only one who can free the other demigods (called Scions in this series) from the power of the Furies, who compel any Scions of different lineages to kill each other upon meeting. Even worse, and also familiar to readers of Aeschylus, the Furies compel Scions to kill any members of their own lineage who have killed a family member, even if inadvertently. 

Helen’s mission has intense personal meaning due to the circumstances under which the first volume of the trilogy concluded. (No spoilers here!) And so, Helen spends night after night fruitlessly searching for the Furies, awakening each morning wounded, exhausted, and covered with the filth of the Underworld. In the meantime, she has been forbidden to be with the Scion she loves or risk igniting a new Trojan War, although neither Helen nor her beloved succeeds in staying away from each other for long. Adding to her inner turmoil, Helen meets and is very attracted to another very handsome Scion in the Underworld, who, with the help of the Bough of Aeneas, makes his way downward nightly to help her in her task. Which of these boys does she really love? Will Helen and her new friend find (and kill) the Furies? What about the Myrmidon that is stalking Helen at the behest of an antagonistic and violent Scion? Suffice it to say that while many of these plotlines are resolved by the end of this book, yet other intrigues unfold to complicate the next volume of the trilogy, as the Scions prepare themselves to face the challenges unleashed by Helen’s quest. --Nava Cohen