Rating: 
Summary: Deerskin
Review: I love Deerskin so much and have re-read it four times. It is a powerful and dark book, beautifully written. There is a sense of magic one feels while reading it. I loved Lissla Lissar and I thought Ossin was great. I reccomend this book to true readers- not to anyone just looking for light fluff. It is one of my favorite books.
Rating: 
Summary: I wanted to like it, but...
Review: ...I just couldn't or didn't. I am a long-time fan of Robin McKinley, as I began reading her books in the mid-80s, and always wished she would write just a little faster. Her book BEAUTY remains one of my favorite novels. I bought DEERSKIN with expectation of loving it as much as all of her other books. Instead I thought "yuck!" and only finished it to see what happened in the end. For whatever reason, the language did not enthrall me, I did not connect with the characters, and the story-line bored me. I have since sold my copy of DEERSKIN to a local used bookstore.
Rating:
Summary: AMAZING
Review: I'm a big fan of Robin McKinley, and for anyone who is not familiar with her writing, I recommend this book as well as all of her great novels.
McKinley writes very poetically and fluidly, which results in a dramatic, moving novel that makes you laugh, cry, and really feel everything the characters are going through.
Deerskin is no different. This is darker and more serious than her other works, but just the same, it is amazing. The story of Princess Lissla Lissar will haunt and intrigue you with her valor, strength, and undying determination to live on, even after a horrible crisis. Trust me, in scary parts your heart seriously starts to pound, and in sad parts the tears won't stop from falling down. This is an amazing book, and I read it in one sitting because I couldn't put it down.
PLEASE don't listen to the critics... They're never good anyway. But understand, this is a must read book.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing yet haunting
Review: Deerskin is a very different sort of book from what Ms. McKinley normally writes. True most of her novels are her version of popular fairy tales, and indeed Deerskin is her version of Donkeyskin. As with her other novels Ms. McKinley again writes of fantastic adventures, of a daring heroine trying to find herself, of the love the characters happen upon along the way, and of the bond between animal and hero (think of Talat and Aerin, in this one it is Ash and Lissar). But that is the end of the similarities. Deerskin is a very dark novel, and it's very much more a psychological battle with herself that the heroine Lissar is fighting, rather than the typical 'bad guy' vs. 'good guy'. I think this novel was fascinating beyond belief, as it delves more into the psychological aspects of characters, rather than their actions. Things like why the perfect queen faded away and died, what the perfect king was like after his queen's death, how he dealt with it, the trauma after a personal violation, trying to recover, trying to trust in love again, and the ghosts that haunt us all. Those are some of the things I found most captivating. Ms. McKinley's writing is very poetic, as with all her novels. There is a great amount of description and I suppose it does add a lot of depth and feeling to the novel. However by reading the book within two days all the description was almost overwhelming, though to me it stopped just short of taking away from the richness of the text. Overall this book was an interesting and absorbing read. I devoted two days of constant reading in order to get through it and I think it was worth it. The characters are interesting and actually have depth and humanity to them, the writing was elegant, the plot was not too complex so as to let the focus rest on psychological aspects, and it was a beautiful, if haunting, read.
Rating:
Summary: Dark yet Beautifully touching
Review: I am a big fan of Robin McKinley, first hooked on her writings with Beauty, and so I decided to pick this up. Let me tell you, this is very different from beauty. This book was not written for younger readers looking for happy, fluffy fairy-tales, but it is an engrossing tale, rewritten in a way that captured my heart. Enough of how much I enjoyed it, explaining the plot may be useful.Loosly based on the fairy-tale Donkeyskin, McKinley tells of a kingdom where the rulers are perfect, but yet negelect their daughter, forgetting she exists. When the most beloved and beautiful queen dies, Lissar's (main character) father grows mad with grief, and as Lissar grows up with her only companions being servants and her best friend Ash, a hunting dog, soon her father takes more intrest in her. As horrible events take place, so does Lissar's transformation into Deerskin, and her journey to find herself and overcome her horrible past. Dark and depressing in the beginning, but don't give up, by the end it's heartwarming and Lissar is a character I shall not soon forget.
Rating:
Summary: Four and a half stars for this dark fairy tale
Review: The editorial review above, while it derides _Deerskin_ as fluff, does summarize the plot pretty well, so I won't waste bandwidth on that. What I will say is this: _Deerskin_ is not fluff. And Robin McKinley sure knows how to use the English language. We are in her spell from the beginning. The book commences with Lissar's nurse telling her a fairy tale--but the fairy tale is the story of how Lissar's larger-than-life parents met. She is told from the very cradle what paragons her mother and father are, and yet she herself is ignored by them. McKinley seduces us with the the magical kingdom's rarefied beauty and glamour--and also the coldness and rot at its core. When Lissar flees, we are shown, with the same deftness, an inhospitable wilderness. And when she finds the kingdom of Cofta, we can't help but notice the difference between it and Lissar's old home; it is more pompous in its architecture, but filled with human warmth. McKinley is equally at home in the throne room and in the dog kennels, and she makes all of it real for us, as Lissar, with the help of the Moonwoman, heals and begins to imagine a new life for herself. I knock off half a star because of a little peeve of mine. McKinley's imaginary world is very similar to our own in terms of flora and fauna. People own dogs, ride horses, and hunt deer and rabbits. But then McKinley feels obligated to point out that this is an imaginary world by also populating the forests with "ootag" and "toro". These words are bandied about constantly, but never quite explained, except that they're animals. I still don't know what an ootag is. As for toro, my guess would have been a wild bull (given my knowledge of Romance languages)--but guess what--it's more like a giant stag. Why couldn't she have just said "stag"? I don't know. The made-up words are jarring. Also, the climactic scene is somewhat overdone. Other than that, splendidly done.
Rating:
Summary: Hated it
Review: This was my favorite fairy tale growing up, but I hated this version of it.
Rating:
Summary: A Fairy Tale With a Deeper Message
Review: Robin McKinley uses the trappings of fairy tale and fantasy to tell a much darker story of abuse, despair, and healing. This is not just a fluffy fantasy story, although all the elements are there, the beautiful queen and handsome king, the forgotten princess and the faithful hound. While the fairy-tale elements of the novel blunt the edge of what, in reality, does not always end happily, she does an excellent job of letting us intimately share the complex inner experience of a girl who is forced to endure the kind of pain that the main character, Lissar endures. Although it deals with a very dark subject, the novel itself is not dark, rather, it shimmers with magic, healing and redemtion. As a therapist who works with abused children, and a fan of fantasy novels, I enjoyed this novel completely.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely amazing!
Review: I love this book so much! It is a great read and I couldn't put it down. All of Robin Mckinly's books are wonderful, but I found this one to be one of the best of them all! I own it and I re read it every few months. By all means, READ THIS BOOK! It's terrific!
Rating:
Summary: wonderful
Review: powerful, beautiful, satisfying read-- I read the entire thing at one sitting!!
-- ranks with the best of Patricia McKillip and Tanith Lee
I don't usually write reviews on Amazon but this book was so good
:)
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