Customer Reviews

The Door In The Hedge (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As I started reading this book I was afraid I wouldn't like it at all. Fortunately, the four stories are arranged in ascending order-from worst to best, so by the time I finished I had a rather favorable impression.

The book starts off with an original tale by McKinley. Starting with the preface, this tale was difficult to break into. I was glad when a plot finally appeared, but by the end I was almost heart-broken by McKinley's description of Faerieland. It is interesting as an alternative viewpoint, but I certainly don't want it to be that way!

The other original McKinley tale, "The Hunting of the Hind," I enjoyed much, much more. I could feel sympathetic for the characters and some of the magical elements were particularly lovely.

McKinley also retells "The Princess and the Frog" and "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." She brings out the darker side of each of these tales, which left me shivering at the end, rather than glowing with the usual happy fairy tale feeling. To many (although not to me) this dark side may be preferable, and one certainly can't deny McKinley's talent for creating atmosphere in her writing. Thus, the book earns three stars and my recommendation to those who love the darker side of fantasy.

Despite an interesting title and a beguiling title page, I honestly found nothing exceptional about Robin McKinley's collection of four fairytales. Whether her stories are original or retold, they are rather dull, predictable, and written with long-winded language that makes for sluggish reading. All are centred on the interactions between this world and that of Faerieland - or to be more specific, the interactions between young princesses and the inhabitants of Faerieland. None of these girls are individuals, instead they are cast straight from the princess stereotype and all the stories end on a slightly sickly-sweet note with each dilemma that the girls' face wrapped up in a nice little bow. Faerieland is not seen as a wild and elusive place, but as a pretty sparkling land with none of the depth or hidden meaning that fairytales are meant to have. They are sweet, pretty, *pointless* tales have nothing of the ambiguity or beauty that they could.

In "The Stolen Princess", McKinley tells the tale of one of the last kingdoms that border the realm of Faery, and the anxiety that the residents face concerning the possible stealing of their children. This happened to the Queen's twin sister Ellian, and now the same thing has happened to happen to their only child Linadel. The King and Queen take it upon themselves to rescue their daughter, whilst she herself awakens in the Faerie realm to greet its inhabitants. The pacing of the story is extremely slow, the "love-at-first-sight" scenario is entirely unconvincing, and the descriptions of Faerieland are unimaginative and flat - it sounds like quite a dull place actually.

"The Princess and the Frog" is a retelling of the princess who drops her golden ball and has it returned to her by a frog. Here, the Princess Rana is saved from the malevolent power of an unwelcome suitor's necklace by a talking frog. The ending is utterly preposterous: the frog returns to his human form, and challenges the suitor Aliyander - at this stage Rana runs out of the room, down to the pond, fills a flagon with its water and rushes back to dump the whole lot on Aliyander. Presumably, since no other explanation is given, we are meant to suppose that during this lengthy interlude of running and fetching water, the two foes simply stood looking at each other, since when Rana returns neither one of them has moved. Furthermore, how Rana knows that the pond-water will destroy Aliyander is completely unexplained, and therefore comes across as random and bizzare.

"The Hunting of the Hind" is possibly the only worthwhile read, which tells of Princess Korah, whose kingdom is plauged by the beauty of a golden hind, the very sight of which drives men into madness. When this terrible affliction lands upon her beloved brother, Korah herself goes out in search of the hind to learn its secrets. However, this story too comes to an annoying ending: the hind is under a spell, which can only be broken if a person goes to the wizard who placed the curse and asks him to remove it. But to prevent the wizard from using your inner emotions against you, one must enter his presence completely devoid of any feelings. So Korah leaves her inner emotions in the keeping of the transformed hind (err, how exactly?) and asks the wizard for her freedom. That's it. I was expecting some sort of twist, some sort of test or trick that the young girl must go through, but no - that's it. To top it off, McKinley throws in a brother to the golden hind to act as love-interest for Korah - why must every Princess land herself a hubby in the course of her adventures? Can't she just have the adventure for its own sake?

Lastly is the longest story, "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" which is told from the point of view of a middle-aged soldier, and is made all the better for it - by this stage I was thoroughly tired of McKinley's flat princess-heroines. The soldier takes up the challenge of solving the mystery of the twelve princesses, whose shoes appear each morning entirely worn out, as if they have been dancing all the night long. If you have read this old fairytale, then there is nothing here that will surprise you - McKinley tells the exact same story, except she takes twice as long to do it. There is a slight shadow of intrigue with the appearance of an old woman who aids the soldier, but it's not enough to warrant the energy I used in dragging myself through this story.

As you can see, this is a rather harsh review, and if you happen to be Robin McKinley reading this - no offence! McKinley is a gifted author, and I have enjoyed many of her books, but this collection just left me entirely unsatisfied. I've tried to give legitimate reasons as to why this is simply isn't a worthwhile book, without simply ranting at it, and the truth is that it just felt completely devoid of any real magic or passion.

This book is a collection of four reworked fairy tales from Northern Europe. The author floats her reader along on dreamy, gossamer-spun tales. The princesses are always kind and beautiful. Their parents are regal, but loving and giving. Even if a prince has been turned into a frog by his evil brother, he is a very brave, manly frog.

This isn't McKinley's best work by any means (I'd award that honor to "The Hero and the Crown"), but it is a pleasure akin to relaxing into a warm bath and letting your mind dissolve into a waking dream.

"The Door in the Hedge"--The country that borders the faerie realm is a wonderful place to live if you overlook the occasional baby boy who disappears from his cradle. Females aren't stolen until they are of marriageable age, and then only one to a family: "If a girl reaches twenty, she may breathe easier and think about marrying." Princess Linadel is beautiful. "Her hair was dark, velvet brown by candlelight and almost chestnut in the sun; and it fell in long, slow curls past her shoulders..." She is an only child so no one really expects her to be stolen by the faeries. However, on the morning of Linadel's 17th birthday, her bed was empty except for a scattering of small blue flowers.

This story suffers from a contrived happy ending. The author takes several stabs at explaining why everything is going to be swell, then gives up and lets it end. Either that, or she is much too subtle for this particular reader.

"The Princess and the Frog"--As I remember the original fairy tale, the princess was spoiled rotten and the frog swaggered about (as much as frogs can swagger) ordering her to do icky things like kiss him. McKinley's version benefits from an evil warlock who turns his brother into a frog. The frog is brave and funny. The princess is beautiful.

"The Hunting of the Hind"--A beautiful woman is turned into a golden hind by a wicked magician. The men who hunt her die or go mad. The local prince decides to have a go at the hind, returns home after a long chase, then begins to pine away. His sister resolves to track down the beautiful creature before her brother dies.

The wicked magician gets a nice build-up in "The Hunting of the Hind" but the confrontation between him and the princess is strangely anticlimactic. I would have expected the bad guy to put up more of a fight.

"The Twelve Dancing Princesses"--This is easily the best story in the book, perhaps because it follows the fairy tale so closely. The characters (except for the princesses, who have very little dialogue) are believable and likeable. The tension really builds as the intrepid soldier follows the princesses down into a demonic underworld where they dance their shoes to pieces for three nights running. I had to read ahead, just to make certain Robin McKinley didn't fiddle with the happy ending!

I first got hooked on Robin's writing with her tales of Aerin and Harry in the Blue Sword Trilogy, and as I've waited for the completion of it I've found all of her books to be exquisit in her colourful and eloquent style of rhetoric. When I picked up the 'Door in the Hedge' I wasn't able to put it down. Particularly the re-telling of 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses' - I read it twice before continuing the rest of the book. While I have read different versions of 'The Twelve Dancing Princesses' and 'The Frog and the Princess' to my children, Robin's versions are their favorites. Last but not least in many of the book stores I frequent Robin's works are mostly located in the young readers sections - This is an injustice to we adult readers who appreciate fantasy literature without alot of the garbage contained in the so-called adult sci-fi fantasy books. I hope That Ms. Mckinley continues writing in her same exceptional style.

This book reminds me of what fairy tales used to be: magical. No more gender roles, psychological undertones and hidden messages, these stories are all wonderful and pure. McKinley's writing is luminous, her retellings a fresh drawing of the old tales with unexpected depth and candor. Her original stories are compelling and speak directly to the reader, making them a part of her story. She makes her heroes and heroines far more human than any two-dementional Disney-generation character. Each story is almost a novel in itself, giving complete insight into the minds and hearts of the characters, sweeping away the reader into a world of color and light. Warning--this book is not for anyone lacking in imagination, it draws as much out of the reader as it gives to them, and is not for the cowardly.

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.

The first book I read by Robin Mckinley was Beauty. I began an ongoing search for her other works. The Door in the Hedge is her best short story collection yet and each of the four tales is better than the one before. I have re-read the book many times and still enjoy the writing(my test of a good book). The first story in this collection is an original tale with a poignant, quiet look at the bonds of sisters, parents, lovers and the responsibilities of leadership. The second is the best retelling of the princess and the frog I have ever read. McKinley replaces the spoiled princess tossing a plaything in a well and crying because she cannot fetch it back with a frightened young woman startled into dropping a far more sinister object in a secret pool. And it is not so much the frog who needs to be freed of his curse but the princess and her family. (I read this one to my eight and ten year old brothers last night and their response when asked what they though of the story was "Awesome!")The third is an original story of a princess' love for her older brother that takes her from her home, where no one but the prince even notices her, to the hiding place of a magical hind and the chambers of a malicious sorcerer. The final story is an exquisite retelling of the twelve dancing princesses. Without giving the name of a single character she unveils the lot of an old foot soldier. His clear, bittersweet understanding of the world around him entranced me and I longed to keep seeing through his eyes. The ending was a little different, as with the first story I almost felt as if the characters were diminished by the resolution of the conflict. Anyways,I most heartily recommend this book :-}

The Door in the Hedge is a wonderful (and wonder full) collection of fairy tales, most old, two new. Ms. McKinley brings her incredible gift of "purple poesy" to play here, creating rich characters and landscapes. Although readers who prefer linear, action-packed, base language stories may not care for this latest offering of High Traditional Fantasy, those who came to love the genre because of Grimms, Anderson, Perrault, and McDonald will definitely want to add The Door in the Hedge to their collections!

This book was my first introduction to McKinley's writings. And as far as I'm concerned the best of McKinley's writings. The title story is outstanding in the beauty of the language and beauty of the story told. Truly a magical book.
It's been on my bookshelf since it was first printed (and been given as a gift to discerning readers more than once). With bookshelf space at a premium, few books that come into my house stay long unless they are worth reading more than once. Definitely a keeper.

If you look for fantasy books described as "dark and sardonic" then this one is not for you. As other reviewers have noted, there is some darkness here. I didn't sense as much of that as other reviewers have. But, for me, all these stories end with warm fuzziness. I loved them. Who needs to buy dark and sardonic novels when you can read the morning newspaper and get plenty of that.