Deerskin by Robin McKinley Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.77 You Save: $6.23 (44%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.44 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Deerskin
Book Review: A book about healing yourself
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this author. Loosely based on Donkeyskin, a fairy tale, this is the story of a princess who is abandoned and betrayed. Her only loyal friend is her hound, Ash. It is Ash who saves the princess's life and her sanity. The princess escapes the brutality and horror of her past by journeying to a far-off country, and she becomes somewhat of a legend in her own time: the Moonwoman. I could not put this down. I loved the healing and hope and the not-too-contrived happy ending. I have also read Beauty and Spindle's End, both by this author, and enjoyed them just as much.Book Review: A great example of Robin McKinley's flaws
Summary: 3 Stars
This book was simultaneously my favorite of Robin McKinley's books and one of the most disappointing and dissatisfying books I've ever read. After this, I've decided that I will not read any more of her books. I've read about 5 others and mostly enjoyed them, but this one really punched up the same flaw in all of her books, which is the ending. She always starts strong and gives you a great read, until somewhere, usually towards the end though in Deerskin it started in the middle, everything seems to go downhill. I am always left dissatisfied at the end of her books. They end with characters just sort of ending up together with no real feelings about it, or random magical happenings that rush to a final conclusion that doesn't really make sense or resolve anything.
In Deerskin, the first half of the book is SO well done that I stuck through the last hoping it would get better. I think it was really brave to take on a story with such painful events and themes, and I admire her ability to transition it from a fairy tale into a story of real human pain and perseverance, but all of that suddenly dropped away halfway through and the main character ended up wandering back and forth for no reason or purpose with random (and as far as I can tell, pointless) magical powers, with a final confrontation with the villain that went on and on and still made no sense and an end that fizzled at best.
When I first began reading McKinley's books I wondered why she wasn't a better known name and a bigger deal in the literary world, and now I see why. As a writer she's fatally flawed, and this book epitomizes that flaw.
Book Review: A hauntingly told story that is the best I have read in a long time!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to say, this story is the first Robin McKinley that I have ever read and though I picked it up hesitantly, I couldn't put it down! The story is fiercely poetic in it's language of heartbreaking beauty and so can tell a story of unimaginable pain. You cannot help but weep for the wonder of the pain that it weaves, and yet the story has it's moments of humor and happiness that just make you want to laugh.
If all of his books are such, I feel I must read them all!
Five stars, if I could give more, I would!!!!
Book Review: A sublime balance between a fairy tale and a novel, this is a book of great beauty, suffering, and subtlety. Recommended
Summary: 5 Stars
Princess Lissar, daughter of a handsome king and the most beautiful woman in seven kingdoms, has little interest in the court. But her mother's death brings a gift and a curse: Ash, her dog and loyal companion; and her father's lust which forces her to flee her kingdom for a journey of survival, self-discovery, and healing. Deerskin is a fairy tale in the form of a novel, finding every benefit in both of these aspects. From the first page the book reads like a fable: the fairy tale (based on Perrault's "Donkeyskin") provides premise and archetypes, the bare bones of a tale which, complimented by McKinley's austere and romantic narration, give the story a sense of timelessness and a magic that far exceeds simple dragons and princely tasks. But McKinley is never content with a fairy tale's simplicity of characterization and narration: in the length and breadth of a novel she finds nuance and detail for every aspect, creating complex characters, realistic emotion, and above all a finely-wrought uncertainty which touches each aspect of the book, denying easy categorization and resolution, insisting instead on the unsettling authenticity of imperfection.
As a result Deerskin is at once dreamy and harsh, at once archetypal and intensely personal, and suffused always with a subtlety that brings life to the protagonist and strength to her story--especially in the book's conclusion. Which is not to say that the book is without fault--Ash, Lissar's canine companion, is touched by a little too much magic and so sometimes seems unbelievable, and the pacing in the final third of the book grows swift, throwing the imagery and magic of the conclusion into a tummult--but a book need not be faultless to be sublime, and any concerns grown as the book comes to a close are assuaged by the beauty, strength, and imperfection of the last few pages. Deerskin is absorbing at its onset and compelling throughout its length, a beauty and a delight without ever shirking its darkest and most difficult aspects, and I enjoyed it utterly. I recommend it to all readers--and perhaps most to those that love a fairy tale retold with all the depth that can be built upon an archetype.
Book Review: An Emotional Roller Coaster
Summary: 5 Stars
Are you prepared for the roller coaster ride that is Robin McKinley's retelling of this old tale? She takes you deep inside this dark and sinister story...which I re-read on a fairly regular basis for the sheer catharsis of the thing. And then, you find yourself going "awww" at the cuteness of sharp little puppy teeth! Deerskin is Robin McKinley at her best!