Rating: 
Summary: A haunting and intriguing piece
Review: I loved this book: loved the characters, loved the story, loved the language. One of the things that most impressed me was the quality of the writing. Pamela Dean is one of the few authors writing today who seems to really know how to use punctuation.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, wonderful book!
Review: I loved it. I absolutely did. Before reading it, I did know the plot of the ballad, having heard the Fairport Convention version and having read the text through (and having read _Fire and Hemlock_ by Diana Wynne Jones) so I did look carefully for the elements I knew should by in there. And even though the actual plot of the ballad doesn't start until, probably, page 408, there are some things (like the guy named Thomas Lane, and Janet Carter herself) that should throw up red flags. I adore Shakespeare and other works of literature and although I didn't get most of the allusions (having never read much romantic poetry; give me a break! I'm only 15!) I still loved it. Her writing style is wonderful. I wish I could write like that. The book almost made me want to major in liberal arts when I get to college (I'm a musician). Those who really love the ballad and are sticklers for actuality probably won't like it. Those who like good literature and people who aren't theater majors but probably should be will. Read it!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Am I the only one who just didn't like it?
Review: I have no disagreement with this book on the grounds that it doesn't do justice to the original ballad, which, after all, I wasn't especially familiar with until after I read the Dean version. But am I the only person who finds the characters cold and difficult to really believe in? I was hoping that this book would sweep me into fantasy right away, and when it didn't, I tried to become engrossed in the lives of these college students in the seventies. But I just couldn't do it. They just aren't believable enough to be interesting and aren't fantastic enough to grab your attention until the very end.
Rating:
Summary: this is a really wonderful novel for anyone with patience
Review: i kept wondering when the "magic" would start in this novel, and the end did not disappoint me. however, when i looked back on it, i realized that the magic was not what was so wonderful about the book. dean manages to take a very realistic look at college life and show the wonder and confusion of it all. i read it while in high school, but now, as a college senior, i truly enjoy it and have recommended it to any book lover with time on their hands. (after all, you don't want to read it if you're currently taking your senior seminar. one or the other would be severly neglected. in my case, it would be the seminar.)
Rating:
Summary: not recommended for those who love the ballad
Review: This book was perhaps better than average in some respects, but that only served to make the areas in which it failed more dissapointing. It did not work as a retelling of the old Scottish ballad, as Dean takes some liberties with the tale which go beyond artistic license and indicate either a lack of research or respect for it. It did not work as a coming of age or college novel; I was in college when I first read it, and found that the characterization was so thin and the changes in the characters so unnoticable that they hardly existed at all. It may work, for some, as a fantasy novel, but I suspect that a lot of readers will, like me, find that the teases thrown in along the way do not sufficiently work to provide build-up for the final few chapters. My biggest problem with the novel is that there didn't seem to be much novel there. I have read it more than once, hoping I was overlooking something, but time and time again find Dean wandering off into English literature lessons at the expense of characterization and plot development. Much of the novel was tilted in this way, feeling unbalanced. While it is clear the Dean loved her subject matter, it is not clear that her characters ever have any sort of life of their own. After a few reads I can honestly say I understand, at least a little, what she was trying to do in this re-telling of a rich and active story in a rather slow and dull manner, but that does not mean that I feel it was worth doing.
Rating:
Summary: One of my top 10 books ever!
Review: I don't give 10's in reviews.
Yet, this book far and above deserves it. Of all the books I've ever read, and I've read quite a lot, Dean's Tam Lin is by far one of the best. I've gone through more copies of this book than I can count, and like one of the other reviewers, I keep lending it out and losing it.
The characters are richly drawn, the language gorgeous; Dean feels the way I feel about fine literature, and references in this book have pointed me to about five other works of art I never would have found. I found myself laughing and crying, and never fail to put this book down without a lump in my throat and feeling strangely touched and moved. I want Janet's life. In this book is all that I have ever wanted, from the touch of the mystic to the group of people who love the art of literature as much as I do. It even has my Ideal Man in it.
This is a book that you can read over hundreds of times, and each time another veil falls away, leaving you closer to your ultimate interpretation of the work. The first time you read it, you'll spend the time pleasantly working out how Dean gets you from one point to another; the entire story falls clear in the last twenty pages, leaving you turning the book over in your hand and wanting to read it over again just to appreciate the densely woven clues interspersed throughout the text.
Anyone who doesn't think fantasy can be classified as "literature" should be given a copy of this book, and if his or her opinion does not change, should be disqualified from the Human Race.
Rating: 
Summary: Best for its college setting
Review: This is one of the first real-world-setting fantasies I read. I was not familiar with the Tam Lin story at the time I read it. While I kept turning the pages, I thought it was just a tiny bit flat -- almost too pat, that is -- but what I enjoyed the most was the evocative flavor of the liberal arts college setting.
Some of the drama majors/male characters seemed a bit "over the top", though, in my opinion. The Janet character seemed to come alive in a way the others didn't.
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Summary: A Brilliant Magical Fantasy of a Golden Age.
Review: College is a time which so many of us yearn to recapture. The energy and intensity, the freedom and growth, the importance of thought and opinion are all slowly-fading memories this Golden Age in our lives. In this book, Ms. Dean captures the oft-remembered magic and overwhelming optimism of the undergraduate years and reminds us of the days when choosing courses, battling advisors, and seeing plays with friends were all integral parts of life. It is within this fairy-tale environment of college that Dean sets her interpretation of the Scottish ballad of Tam Lin, the story of a young woman's quest to save her lover from the Queen of Faerie. Much of the greatness of this book comes not only from Dean's magnificent portrayal of the lives of her characters, but also from the way in which the realm of Faerie creeps into the story unobtrusively, mysteriously, and malignly. This is no sweet tale of elves and sprites, but a full-fledged Fairy Tale in its spookiest and most magical sense, where the reader and the characters are unaware of what is really happening around them until they are completely entwined. With great skill and obvious joy, Dean interweaves the two worlds flawlessly, with brilliant characterization and beautiful language. It is impossible to pay sufficient tribute to this book, where this gifted author has brought together age-old literary and folk-tale themes and set them in this jewel of a story. The tale is dark at times, but the prose is light and flowing, and the characters are incredibly sympathetic. As many others have commented, Tam Lin is by far one of the best books I have read. It requires frequent re-reading and never fails to enthrall and amaze me with its magical story-telling and engrossing plot. I highly recommend Tam Lin to all who love literature, worship words, and see the potential sparkle of magic in college campuses in autumn. It is simply a joy.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing intertextuality lends a deeper imagery.
Review: "Tam Lin" is by far one of the most complex books of this genre I have ever read. By alluding to and relying on many great works and authors of English Literature (together with the fields of drama, music and even science) it is relays a deeper meaning to the modern text. In examining each of the texts alluded to, and also the further study of the ballad itself and its various forms, new perspectives are constantly shown. Like Yolen's "Briar Rose", "Tam Lin" is an historic literary work retold to show the relevancy in our modern world. The only dissatisfaction I have is that when I went to college, the students there were more interested in getting drunk than discussing literature!
Rating:
Summary: A Liberal Arts dorm life must read!
Review: This book covers the life of and English/Classics major at a small liberal arts universtiy in Minnessota during the 70's. The best of the fairy tale series books, the fairy element is subtle. The main story is about a young woman's introspective look at herself and college life. Laugh out loud funny at times, the reader really comes to care about this young woman and her friends, throught the narrators honest, and sometimes biting, commentary on life.
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