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4.14 AVERAGE
4.14 AVERAGE
This book is amazing. Great characters, intriguing story, and beautifully written.
This would be a good choice for a "young-young adult" classification.
This would be a good choice for a "young-young adult" classification.
Liked it better this reading, though lacked much of the beauty and depth of the original. Still hate that she cheats on her fiance, and that the younger of her suitors is still 11 years older than her and knew her as a baby.
4.5/5. And yet, McKinley gives me the kind of vision of queer love in a way that must have struck me to a core I wasn't aware that I possessed when I read this work all those years ago, and even her rather ham-fisted world building fanservice for readers who still remember TBS in any capacity couldn't diminish that in any significant capacity. So, a work much in the vein of Tolkien, capable of both great compassion and great othering when it comes to delivering on its narrative. My world isn't one that can afford much of that in an uncritical capacity, but as is the case with most everything these days, I take my love where I can get it, and I'm willing to do the hard work of naming it for what it is so long as I can keep it.
They traveled west at first, then north, with the mountains on their right and the heavy Airdthmar forests on their left, forests that had never been completely explored, that held creatures no one had ever named. When times were peaceful the kings of Damar had set up expeditions to drive deeper into the forest, for it stood in the way of their kingdom's free trade and concourse from one town to the next; but the Airdthmar was not kind to the folks who tried to chart it and lay roads through it. Alrbeth claimed to be fond of it. "It is quiet, it causes no courteous passer-by any trouble, it keeps its own counsel," he said. "Would that all the quarters of the Damarian compass were so civilized."Robin McKinley is one of the only authors who I've carried close to my heart from childhood to the present day. Tolkien is a strong contestant, as is Pullman, but unlike either, I've never burnt out on or feared that I should if I took on too much of McKinley's bibliography. True, I'm the opposite of eager for anything she might see fit to publish today, much as I am in the case of most authors who struck a cord within my self ten, twenty years ago and live on today, but that's as much a fault of the advertising behemoth masquerading as a publishing industry today as it is of my own fear of the possibility that change wrought by the passage of time will end up compromising my nostalgic love. Taking on both this and [b:The Giver|3636|The Giver (The Giver, #1)|Lois Lowry|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1342493368l/3636._SY75_.jpg|2543234] in quick succession, then, was an endeavor as sharp and far flung as diving headfirst into a chilling lake during the height of summer before one's thoughts to catch up and muddle over the pros and the cons of the entire project. Unlike was the case with TG, my enthusiasms over this particular work are on par with what they were decades ago, my lack of context due to not having read this work's written-first-but-technical-sequel [b:The Blue Sword|407813|The Blue Sword (Damar, #1)|Robin McKinley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563198223l/407813._SY75_.jpg|2321296] made up for by my more complex grasp on narratology and greater appreciation for the boundaries McKinley was pushing way back when. I don't think this is perfect, and there's little chance of a TBS reread changing that estimation, but the number of times it made my heart both catch in my throat and unbearably ache was absurdly high, even borderline 'and his heart grew three sizes that day' stereotypical à la Grinch and such, and if I had any hope for the average YA work put out today to do the same, I'd read nothing else. A rare experience, then, one that gives me hope when it comes to the rest of McKinley's catalog, reread or otherwise.
Yes, I am letting my own experience color my answer, which is what experience is for.The fact that the main character as Outsider is an extremely overused trope in much of literature, especially in regards to works aimed at children, doesn't automatically entail that anyone who calls themselves a 'writer' is capable of properly wielding it. Indeed, it is McKinley's handling of such that drives my main line of criticism, both in lauding and in decrying, although I diverge from the evaluations of some of the more popular reviews of this work on this site in my estimation. The first half of the work is nothing but the close third person being on the receiving end of superstitious intolerance and the kind of "nice" and "polite" behavior that explains how lovely ladies and gentlemen can host tea parties in the afternoon and dress up in hoods in the night, and for any child who has even had a taste of such dehumanization, it is hard to resist indulgently rolling in whatever hard won gratification and triumph the work deems fit to grant our poor, misunderstood Aerin. Come the second half, the enemy becomes much distanced, more monstrous, and yet heavily simplified when compared to that of community prejudice, and Aerin's happy ending becomes one of complete integration into what had, for most of her life, been little more than a burning building, so long as she is willing to burn half of her heritage in an incontrovertibly and physically violent manner
Spoiler
(the familial reveal as the End All Evil, passed down from the tales of Chronos and inherited in the likes of Star Wars, simply being a even more definitive rendition of suchShe had misunderstood what her fate truly was a few days ago [...] ; it was not that she left what she loved to go where she must, but that her destiny, like her love, like her heritage, was double.One of these days, I'll be fortunate enough to go to a small enough seller of books that I'll have both the time and the energy to peruse the areas where a work such as [b:Sunshine|8088|Sunshine|Robin McKinley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1571338028l/8088._SY75_.jpg|2321294] would be stocked, and I'll no longer feel uneasy about conducting further McKinley revisiting while there's still unexplored McKinley territory. Until then, I'm glad that my usual reading structures have recently taken me in more familiar yet far less stodgy directions than they typically have for the last few years, as it will make future projects plotted along the heretofore much neglected courses of rereading and/or YA that much easier to commit to. It's also reassuring to trace a path my younger self took that proved, unlike so many others she was shoved into, something vital for her development as a human being capable of both deep self-care towards herself and true compassion towards others. It's not something I expect every reader of this work to come out feeling, but that's the power of the individual work for the individual reader, is it not? So, all I can say is that I see much more McKinley in my horizon, one way or another, as well as that I hope that this trajectory will lead me in other, possibly more modern directions when it comes to my interest in this sort of literature: credibly fantastical, beautifully well written, and imbued with an unyielding cord of fellow feeling that proves even stronger and more comprehensive than this particular work ended up being capable of. High standards, I know, but if it can be done here, it can be done again, and I have no interest in cutting out the future so that the past looks better for having less competition.
Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.
― George Bernard Shaw
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved the hero and her storyline.
This hit a lot of the standard tropes, but not as badly as some. I enjoyed the story, although I felt like the hero won by accident a lot of the time, without really knowing what she was doing. I did like that she achieved many of her goals through persistence and by following her own ideas though.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Young adult fiction, coming of age, fantasy
adventurous
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Beautifully written, The Hero and The Crown paints a vivid and emotional story about a woman who's bloodline allows her to have the life of a princess yet the scorn of a witch. Aerin is fire, both in her stubbornness and in the color of her hair, and she brings to readers a heroine that defies the constraints of men and seeks to find her own place in the world.
Things I Loved About This Book:
- McKinley's beautiful writing and ability to capture my attention
- Aerin's character development (as well as the trials she must face both internally and externally)
- how smoothly the plot was woven throughout the story to connect different pieces and answer questions
Things I Loved About This Book:
- McKinley's beautiful writing and ability to capture my attention
- Aerin's character development (as well as the trials she must face both internally and externally)
- how smoothly the plot was woven throughout the story to connect different pieces and answer questions
One of my favorite worlds to go back to. Beautifully written with strong leads who feel like real people even though they are the stuff of legends. Great for younger readers, and those who love the feel of legends and mythical stories.
i didn’t like this book at all it took so long to get into you and i didn’t much understand why things that were made important were if that makes any sense at all could barely even retain info from chapter to chapter one star and now im behind in my schedule :(