Rating: 
Summary: Hmmm....
Review: Maybe the problem is that I read Jane Yolen's Briar Rose before this one, and it spoiled me. I like the characters, at least the ones we get to know in depth. They seem real, and I care about what happens to them. The plot is definitely a little slow. One of the other reviewers said that Ms. Dean really got the feel of college life down accurately, I have to disagree. My college experience is nothing like these people's . From what I've read so far, no one really has a life, and I can't think of one person I know who talks like they do and I have very good friends who are English, Theater, and Classics majors. I guess I just expected something a little more...I don't know..."fairytale-ish". It is a good read, but I would recommend Yolen's Briar Rose (from the Fairy Tale Series as well) before Tam Lin.
Rating: 
Summary: All hope abandon, ye who want a well-told story...
Review: ..on the other hand, if you like a teen 'drama' that doesn't seem to convey real emotion, you'll love it. Don't get me wrong - I loved the literary references and I think the idea behind the book is fantastic. It's just not done well at all. Every building gets a complete sketch-artist description, but people are just given as "black hair and a pouty face" or something similar. Dean tries to convey every little detail of a play they go to at one point, but the breakup of a three-year relationship comes and goes in a page and a half. Bizarre things happen (nonexistent books appearing from open windows, people turning out to be hundreds of years old), and the girls simply treat it as if being haunted is just something that happens on any day ending in Y. This happens, they do this, this other thing happens, the end. No reactions. No disbelief or trouble dealing with the enormity of what's happening. None of the characters seem like more than props for the story. It seems as if Pamela reached page 400 and suddenly remembered how the book was supposed to end, whereupon she wedged the original story's ending (almost word for word, no less) in out of nowhere. Very little is explained afterward. Why?I'm not completely condemning this book. Some things (especially the presentation of "The Lady's Not For Burning," which prompted me to go read the play also) are very well-done. The premise of placing the folk tale in a modern setting is very good. But Ms. Dean, I've had enough. I cry you mercy.
Rating: 
Summary: Find more every time you read it
Review: I was disappointed the first time I read this. While it was a very good novel about college life in the early 70s, I wanted to read a novel based on a fairy tale/folk legend. I enjoyed the literary dialogue bantered back and forth among the characters (believe it or not, my friends and I do speak this way; the curse of the overeducated!) Curiosity had me turning back to the book a second time, and suddenly the world I blundered into was much richer. Without having the expectations of gnomes and wishes and magical events that I had the first time, the subtler wonders of this book unfolded. Tiny clues lead up to the suddenly otherworldly ending, ones that can't be understood on the first read-through. Pamela Dean has to be a outstanding wordsmith, to manage to keep me interested through a 10 page decription of a uninspiring 17th century play, among other things. The pace may be slow, but it gives you a chance to watch the lovely scenary go by. For that reason, I love this book more every time I read it.
Rating:
Summary: Mmmmm, not sure.....
Review: Well, I wasn't really sold on this book. Enjoyed the concept but it didn't really live up to my expectations. True, I read this book quickly and probably missed out on some of the nuances on the way, but the reason I did so was because I was getting a little bored with it. However I perservered, and while I enjoyed the ending, there wasn't enough enjoyment to agree the whole story was great. I think this is a 'cult' book, and most people are going to either like it or hate it. Right now I'm sitting on the fence with this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Intelligence predominates
Review: I recently picked this book up again and was surprized at what I found. People complain about the literary references and the "intuitive" dialogue, but as an English major I remember really talking like that at University. If just one person reads Christopher Fry's "The Lady's Not for Burning" after reading this book; it will have done a great service to the world. So much of this is an intertwining of multiple stories and references with characters who have the same name. There are also ways to deal with cliques, the pressures of being an "inside" outsider [the leading character is a professor's daughter], changing social mores. And the problem with falling in love serially in an intertwining group of friends. All of these are continuing issues in most lives. This book is beautiful.
Rating:
Summary: A priveledge and a duty to give it 5 stars
Review: It is my turn to enter the fray; how could I let the Philistines of the world drag down the rating on this book, without at least doing my sacred duty to reverse the tide. Yes, the characters talk highly "unreal"; if that were a criticism of literature, we should all stay home and read Archie comics. Yes, the ending came too fast and destroyed the metaphor. I won't try to ridicule this objection because it's true; Ms Dean, in both Tam Lin and JG&R, ruined otherwise perfect books with wrongheaded fumbling endings. But the book! The book, even including the unfortunate turn at the end, is a marvel of literature. Fresh, intelligent, delightful, comfortable, .... I can't summon enough positive adjectives. Simply on it's thematic intent, it would rate 5 stars. I turn to the book again and again on dark lonely days to savor the language and description. I would not say that she "turns and English phrase" as well as the masters of the past: George Elliot, Henry James, etc... but she is both more comtemporary, and often more witty. Those of you who can't read literature because there are not enough action scenes, why are you voting? Tam Lin is not for the immature. One only hopes that Ms Dean will continue to add to her fine body of books, and that time will help her to both continue the books to their proper conclusions, and to rely more on her own fine writing skills - not to drop the quotes, they're too much fun; just give us more book in between.
Rating: 
Summary: how this doth stink: let me count the ways
Review: What awkward teenage girl who's into preciousness and sci-fi wouldn't love to go off to the big scary world of college, to find it populated solely by attractive young men in poofy shirts who adress women as "Lady" in everyday conversation, and who recite poetry at the drop of a hat? Ugh. If I'd had to read one more pointless description of a building, or read any more of what can most generously be described as "intuitive" dialogue, or listen to one more of the main character's purse-lipped, prudish opinions, I'd have gone insane. The "characters" are pretty much interchangable props [Dean's idea of character development apparently involves rattling off lists of their favorite books] who blithely accept anything posited to them [ghosts? duh.. okay]. I managed to stomach half of the book before I realised nothing was going to get any better. I picked it up on recommendation from the Alternative Sexualities in SF and Fantasy [compiled online], but boy is this a real stinker.
Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous
Review: Despite its length (500+ pages) I read this book in 3 days. I was completely drawn into a new world -- for those days, the book was my reality. Yes, it's full of obscure references, and there are "loose ends" but that only contributed more to the feeling of mystery -- of fantasy -- of silent possibilities. In short I loved it.
Rating:
Summary: Tam Lin
Review: This book is so boring. I don't think it could be considered as a fairy tale. There is not much fairy tale in there. Too much literature reference makes the book so dull.
Rating:
Summary: Missing something...
Review: While I like Dean's attempt at an urban fantasy setting, I can't help but feel unsettled with this novel. Dean has gorgeous prose...still, her constant literary references seem more of an excuse to show off HER quoting skills (and she does this in other works). Unfortunately, I read Patricia McKillip's "Winter Rose" (a reworking of "Tam Lin") before this novel, which would explain my disappointment. However, I believe it has more to do with the pacing of the novel in which 300+ pages are devoted to the first year and the rest to the other 3 years. Also, I felt as if a whole chunk ot the novel was torn out. There were not even enough clues left to solve the mystery of the Classics department, the past suicides, that of Peg, and various, various other oddities! While Virginia Woolf was able to sacrifice plot for the sake of literary technique, she did not leave any loose ends untied...therefore Dean's beautiful prose does not redeem this novel. If Dean is subtle with her allusions to "Tam Lin" (as I believe she is throughout the novel) then why does she use an inconsistent device by shoving in the actual ending of "Tam Lin" in the last few pages of the novel (and then she does it too literally i.e. by following exactly what happens in the ballad) when the rest of the novel has been a subtle, metaphorical reworking? For examply, why does she literally have Thomas change shapes rather than metaphorically? Why does Medeous call him "Tam Lin" (other than to explain the title of the book)? Dean claims that only a pregnant woman can save Thomas because that's how it is! If Patricia Wrede felt it necessary to explain the gaps in "Snow White and Rose Red," surely Dean could feel it within her power to do so. After all, this is the "Fairy Tale Series," a reworking of classic fairy tales! I only wish that Terri Windling could have incorporated Patricia McKillip's version ("Winter Rose") in her otherwise brilliant series.
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