There are characters in all the Hinton novels who appear to be victims of a destiny they are not able to escape. This destiny may be the product of an accident of birth or a quirk of society (or a combination of both) but whatever the cause, it is usually final, and often fatal. Dallas Winston in The Outsiders is doomed from the first time we meet him; he can't escape his fate because it is a part of himself. Neither, apparently, can Mark in That Was Then, This Is Now, although his case is a little less satisfactory. In her fourth book, Tex, the entire cast of characters lines up behind placards reading "Those Who Go and Those Who Stay"; once it's decided which they are (a gypsy fortune-teller may make the decision) their fate is sealed. "Will and fate," Travis asks himself in Taming the...