Tam Lin by Pamela Dean Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Tam Lin
Book Review: good read if you're a sucker for fairy tales and ballads
Summary: 3 Stars
Oh lord, I somehow didn't notice, when I first read Pamela Dean's Tam Lin as a teen, how pretentiously the characters speak. Maybe because I was pretty pretentious myself, who knows.
It's still a fun fantasy read.
You might want to refresh your knowledge of Shakespeare's plays, particularly Hamlet, before picking this up, if you didn't pay much attention to them before. I found myself wishing I had a copy of Hamlet around, since the characters seem to discuss that play endlessly.
I recommend reading the actual Ballad of Tam Lin first so you can kind of figure out what's going on, or else you'll end up wanting to read the whole thing over again once you get to the end of the novel and find out. Which would be a good thing in most cases, but the typos in this reprint might drive you mad if you see them twice in a row.
So maybe I'd just recommend finding one of the originals instead of the reprint. Regardless, I think anyone with an interest in fairy tales or ballads who can stand a little annoying characterization would enjoy Tam Lin.
(I would actually give this book a little closer to three-and-a-half out of five, but obviously that's not an option here.)