Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Although I thought this book did have a rough start, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The writting style is amazing and I for one could not put this book down. I have to admit that I was a little put off by the beginning and wasn't going to finish it but I had been intrigued by this author's other books and went on. I'm glad I did. What happened to Lissar was horrible but it does not make the book evil. And while I do not recommend this book to anyone under fifteen I believe that most people would find this book mesmerizing and would be as enchanted with it as I was.
Rating: 
Summary: Disapointment (2 and a half stars)
Review: Robin McKinley is a favorite of mine but she let me down when I read this book. I dunno maybe I have to read it two or three times to care for it. It could have been worse, maybe i'm being to hard on it, but i didn't care to much of it.
It seems like it just goes on and on about it self. it kept climbing to a huge end then it came to it and it wasn't what i was hoping for.
This is a story for a more matchure reader, not something I'd go and read to my lil 4 year old cuz. Better for about 13 and up.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally!
Review: I finally read the book after many years of pushing it off. Well worth the wait. I was shocked at the violent detail very graphic and also the psychological aspect of it was very well detailed. Those are the pros. I deducted 1 star for too much doggy detail, that was annoying and not enough development of the attachment of prince Ossin to Lissar. Though her fear of attachment was well done the ending was too claptrap and there was not enough time for love and healing of wounds. I would also have liked her father (crazy idiot that he was) to vanish very very painfully in the flames. Another pro - Prince Ossin not being very goodlooking and liking dogs rather than ruling the kingdom! An unhandsome prince makes a very nice anti-hero.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent work -
Review: This is a great book - McKinley at her best. It offers the reader some terrific insight into pain and loss, and help and courage. Recommended for people who were not abused as children and don't understand what makes remembering so painful to their friends. This book understands pain. It has that deep level, and can be theraputic.
On a lighter note, for those of you who love fairy tale retellings ala the Windling-Datlow series, this is a very clever take on "Donkeyskin." A finely crafted heroine, and very real darkness, with a tribute to the Goddess.
Rating: 
Summary: Hrm
Review: I have mixed feelings about this book. Most of the reviews that I've read for it have mentioned the metaphorical and vague voice. Indeed, most of the book feels like a dream. Sometimes I had to reread parts to check if they had actually happened or not. In fantasy this can be a good attribute; however, it really got tiring. I am a huge fan of Robin McKinley's, but somehow her style seemed different in this book.I did not like the sudden interest of Lissar's father in his daughter; because until then he showed absolutely no sign of attraction to her. I wish that McKinley would have delved into it more and given him more of a motivation. I realize that he made a promise to his wife, but certainly that is not enough cause for raping your seventeen-year-old daughter. There were parts that were very compelling and that sucked you in; however, there were also rather tedious parts to go along. For example, Lissar's physical healing seemed to take ages. I understand that it would have taken a while and McKinley probably wished to convey this... but really, it got to be so detailed that it felt almost arduous. Is it really necessary to know how Lissar used the bathroom? The biggest problem that I had with this book, ironically for a fantasy novel, is that magic. I love magic in novels, but the magis in Deerskin felt almost contrived. The part with the moon woman, for one, was unbelievably strange, and the tale that accompanied it felt like a rushed excuse for her present. To make matters worse, Lissar eventually turned into the woman. Yet she didn't. Confused? Yes, so was I. In fact, as much as I reread that last scene, I barely caught what was going on. I blame the last part, also, to the problem that I mentioned before: the vague voice. It was beautifully written, like Shakespeare, yet required much concentration and thought about what exactly was occuring. In a novel with such a gripping plot, one does not have the patience to go back and figure out what happened, because they want to learn what happens next. Perhaps that is why the whole book seemed to be unraveled, and loosely hanging together. Many complained about the love story, but I found that one of the more enjoyable parts. I guessed from when Ossin sent that puppy that the two would end up together, and I was right. However, even if it was predictable, I still liked it. I especially enjoyed the physical descriptions, because it reminds me of stories like Jane Eyre where the love interest isn't handsome by normal standards, but grows attractive to the girl because she falls in love with him. Lissar was a sympathetic heroine, but I was often frustrated with her actions. While I can understand why she fled, from a reader's vantage her flight after Ossin proposed was very anti-climactic. I hate to admit it, but I skimmed the next few pages. What could be called "the final battle" was also a letdown. Somehow, Lissar's confrontation with her father lacked something; even though in the scene she was described as "fiery" and "passionate" in actuality her speech to her father was dry. I could ramble/rant on some more, but I'll spare everyone and simply sum up my thoughts on the book: It has its redeeming moments, but also many letdowns. However, all in all it is enjoyable, and a different kind of fairy tale for once. Instead of a quest for treasure or to stop an evil sorcerer, this one is to heal the shattered mind and soul of a girl. I immensely enjoyed the psychological aspect, and wish that McKinley would have mainly stuck to that aspect instead of all the strange magic, which honestly just seemed like plot contrivances.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book!
Review: I read this book as a really mature 11y.o. It was a little disturbing in some places, but not so much to keep me from reading it. I read a lot of books, and this is my favorite. The plot is so intricate and fragile it's hard not to admire it. I wouldn't recomend this to someone who isn't ready to read some pretty advanced/more adult stuff. Great book, though.
Rating: 
Summary: I've Read Better!!
Review: When I first picked up Deerskin, I thought that it would make a good read, but as I started to get into the book, I found it quite boring. The whole book is just the main character, Lissla Lissar, trying to over come her past. BORING. But there was one thing I did like, the ending. I don't mean to offend anyone but frankly, I've read better.
Rating:
Summary: autobiography and this novel
Review: In The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown, Robin McKinley creates her own legends. In Deerskin, she seems to me to do the opposite: she takes a legend, one that, unlike Beauty and the Beast, genuinely stems from that strange, undeniable brew of the universal subconscious, and personalizes it so highly as to be almost autobiographical. Possibly this novel is the worse for the lack of objectivity that McKinley seems to bring to the story. But I cannot fault her involvement.
Deerskin is almost too personal to read. Written in prose that occasionally becomes over-mesmerized with its own beauty, but often doesn't, it is a thorough exploration of brutal pain and pain's brutal repercussions. "Thorough" is to be emphasized. McKinley holds back no detail. She talks through the rape itself. She talks through Lissar's tiny solutions to her tiny, though life-threatening problems in the mountains. She explains exactly Lissar's position in the Goldhouse castle. She is specific about Lissar's borrowed finding-magic, specific about exactly from what Lissar pulls back in Ossin's proposal. She does not generalize about Lissar's final renunciation ritual. Not all of it is extroardinarily fresh or exactly homogenous. The explanation of the Moon-woman, though specific, lacks too much the feel of legend, for instance. But all of it together is a wealth of specificity, of detail.
This is why I find Deerskin autobiographical. McKinley works through Lissar's tragedy with a vengeance. She holds exactly nothing back. And in doing so, McKinley invests the Donkeyskin legend with a viewpoint so totally her own that it becomes a manifesto to what she hints at in other books: peace and happiness come at an almost unpayable cost, and they come not as what is expected--glamour, beauty, excitement--but as something much truer, stranger, and more wonderful.
I want to end on an autobiographical note of my own: I picked this book up around seventh grade, when I was searching for an acceptable way to put names to frightening things. I don't think even I can estimate how much this book helped with that exploration, because it didn't take up terror and leave it, but followed it through to an end that was both triumphant and terrifyingly, wonderfully human. I'm not saying it's a book for kids. I'm saying it helped me to become an adult. Thank you, Robin McKinley.
Rating:
Summary: autobiography and this novel
Review: In The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown, McKinley creates her own legends. In Deerskin, it seems to me that she does the opposite: she takes a legend, one that, unlike Beauty and the Beast, genuinely stems from that strange, undeniable brew of the universal subconscious, and personalizes it so highly as to be almost autobiographical. Possibly this novel is the worse for the lack of objectivity that McKinley seems to bring to the story. But I cannot fault her involvement.
Deerskin is almost too personal to read. Written in prose that occasionally becomes over-mesmerized with its own beauty, but often doesn't, it is a thorough exploration of brutal pain and pain's brutal repercussions. "Thorough" is to be emphasized. McKinley holds back no detail. She talks through the rape itself. She talks through Lissar's tiny solutions to her tiny, though life-threatening problems in the mountains. She explains exactly Lissar's position in the Goldhouse castle. She is specific about Lissar's borrowed finding-magic, specific about exactly from what Lissar pulls back in Ossin's proposal. She does not generalize about Lissar's final renunciation ritual. Not all of it is extroardinarily fresh or exactly homogenous. The explanation of the Moon-woman, though specific, lacks too much the feel of legend, for instance. But all of it together is a wealth of specificity, of detail.
This is why I find Deerskin autobiographical. McKinley works through Lissar's tragedy with a vengeance. She holds exactly nothing back. And in doing so, McKinley invests the Donkeyskin legend with a viewpoint so totally her own that it becomes a manifesto to what she hints at in other books: peace and happiness come at an almost unpayable cost, and they come not as what is expected--glamour, beauty, excitement--but as something much truer, stranger, and more wonderful.
I want to end on an autobiographical note of my own: I picked this book up around seventh grade, when I was searching for an acceptable way to put names to frightening things. I don't think even I can estimate how much this book helped with that exploration, because it didn't take up terror and leave it, but followed it through to an end that was both triumphant and terrifyingly, wonderfully human. I'm not saying it's a book for kids. I'm saying it helped me to become an adult. Thank you, Robin McKinley.
Rating:
Summary: A fairy tale...but not for the kiddies.
Review: A re-telling of Perrault's "Donkey-Skin," with elements of the Grimms' "Cinderella"? If only it were so simple. "Deerskin" is sick, twisted, and disturbing; it is emphatically *not* for children (or even less mature adults). But it's also deep, gripping, and beautifully written. McKinley obviously likes animals every bit as much as her protagonists; the ubiquitous dogs are strong supporting characters in their own right. And although the characters may seem at first glance like fairytale stereotypes (the evil king, the exiled princess, the honorable prince), they break the mold in original and intriguing ways. (The prince, for example, is shy, pudgy, and would rather be out playing with puppies than attending a royal ball.)
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