Reviews

The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley

oliviakateamerica's review

adventurous challenging funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.25

“The Stolen Princess” - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“The Princess and the Frog” - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
“The Hunting of the Hind” - ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
“The Twelve Dancing Princesses” - ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 

aggressive_nostalgia's review

More entertaining than i was expecting - at least in the first story - but still, not excellent, per se. I haven't read any of McKinley's other works yet (although I just started The Blue Sword today), so I can't make a comparison there. Still, I found "The Stolen Princess" to be fairly riveting, actually, for the twenty minutes it took me to read it; and "The Hunting of the Hind" was pretty good as well. "The Princess and the Frog" was rather flat, on the other hand, not to mention sparse - consisting of less than ten pages. Both that story and "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" just seemed like another thin retelling of the same fairy tales with a few of the details rearranged. All in all, this was all right for an hour or so, but not brilliant. The first story was by far the best one.

glomdi's review against another edition

2.0

This book is not one of Robin McKinley's best. I opened with high expectations because I've read Sunshine and Beauty by the same author. This book, however, was sourly disappointing. The first story wasn't that good, but I thought it would get better.

It didn't.

Like the other two books I've read by McKinley(and like someone mentioned below), it needs more dialogue. There are so many pages that I got bored and stopped paying attention without even realizing it- then I read the page again and the same thing happened.

Another thing that irks me about this book is how the people fall in love. They don't know know each other but they someone know that they love each other. What? This is pretty typical of fairy tales, but I was hoping McKinley would be better.

So, in the end, it looked like a good book... but wasn't at all.

esthery_rn's review

adventurous relaxing slow-paced

4.0

The first story is plodding with a lot of backstory before the title story begins. It was not my favorite. The Golden Hind is not a common fairy tale and was a quick story. I enjoyed this version of The Princess and the Frog. I wish that the author had turned this one into a longer version. The 12 Dancing Princesses was also a good rendition. Overall, this is a great collection of fairy tales for adult readers.

eletricjb's review

4.0

Exactly what I expected. A+ to the 12 dancing princesses retelling.

almond's review against another edition

relaxing slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Beautifully written and narrated, but very white and traditional.

dallasrobyn's review

4.0

A collection of 4 short stories. All I can say is that I wish it had been longer. I would have liked each of the stories to have been more fully developed...they were just too short, by the time you get into the story, it's over already.

what_ella_reads's review

4.0

I really enjoyed the four shorts stories in this book.

craftygiant's review against another edition

4.0

As a fan of fairy tales I greatly enjoyed the book. I thought that the stories worked well as the short stories they were. They could perhaps have been longer or more fleshed out but I actually liked that the stories took you far enough to see that the traditional ending on the horizon and then stopped.

leesmyth's review

3.0

I liked the stories well enough, though I couldn't help thinking that the deserving prevailed with what seemed like remarkably little effort.

My favorite was The Princess and the Frog, as I recall a traditional version of the story well enough to appreciate McKinley's variations.