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Title: The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley ISBN: 0-698-11960-6 Publisher: Puffin Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (16 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Into the "Door"
Comment: Despite her award-winning original fantasies, Robin McKinley will always be known as the lady who redid the classic fairy tales like "Beauty," "Spindle's End" and others. "Door in the Hedge," recently reprinted by Firebird Books, matches two retold fairy tales with two original stories, with mixed results.
"The Stolen Princess" is a the rather rambly tale of a royal family's difficulties; the queen's aunt was stolen to Faerieland as a girl, and when she marries and has a daughter of her own, the young daughter is also kidnapped. Things get more complicated when old mysteries are solved. "The Hunting of the Hind" tells of a deer-woman so beautiful that she drives men mad, and the princess who is trying to free her. And McKinley presents two old fairy tales given a new spin: "The Princess and the Frog," a story of brotherly treachery, and "Twelve Dancing Princesses," given a darker tinge.
Robin McKinley's writing is better suited to novels than short stories. In "The Door in the Hedge," she does a pretty good job. Not a great job, not even a good job -- just a pretty good one. When it comes to style, her writing is nearly impeccable, but it's in the actual stories told that she stumbles over her own quill pen.
"Stolen Princess" takes forever to move past McKinley's lectures about customs and problems in the kingdom, but moves steadily and well once it gets to Princess Lindanel's kidnapping. This one could easily have been expanded into a full-length book. "Hunting of the Hind" is even better, tight and strong. But the two fairy-tale retellings are stilted and too short.
McKinley's writing is detailed and has some moments that are pure poetry, such as Lindanel's first meeting with the prince of Faerieland, or Princess Korah finding the Hind. The biggest difficulty is the characterizations -- the three last stories are too short for her to develop the characters enough for readers to really like 'em.
Flawed but pretty, "The Door in the Hedge" is a nice read for fans of retold fairy tales. Just don't expect anything like McKinley's usual level of storytelling.
Rating: 4
Summary: Wonderful writing
Comment: The Door in the Hedge is a collection of four stories by Robin McKinley. I would summarize them all, but that has been done already by many others and I'm not very good at it. So anyway, here are my thoughts on the book.
For starters, Robin McKinley is an amazing writer, definately one of the best out there today. The stories are all interesting as well.
My only problem with this book, is that each of the four stories centers around a female, and in every story, the female character seems to be the same (a beautiful princess). But other than that, the book was wonderful. I definately want to read more books by this author!
Rating: 2
Summary: Not my cup of tea
Comment: Another young adult book by an author good at fairy tales, but this one is a collection of four fairy tales instead of a stand alone story. The book blurb says that two of the fairy tales are retellings and two are "new", but I found all of them to feel like retellings of stories I'd already heard. I didn't care for the book, but the kidlet loved it. He just likes McKinley, I think.
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Title: Sunshine by Robin McKinley ISBN: 0425191788 Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories by Robin McKinley ISBN: 0064406040 Publisher: HarperTrophy Pub. Date: 30 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley ISBN: 0441005837 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $6.50 |
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Title: Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley ISBN: 0064404773 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Pub. Date: 01 June, 1993 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Deerskin by Robin McKinley ISBN: 044100069X Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1994 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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