Rating: 
Summary: Quite Enjoyable
Review: A very engaging book of four short stories, two of which are fairy tale retellings and two of which are original. Robin's usual compelling style draws us in and makes us care about the characters, the reading isn't too difficult, and she accomplishes quite a remarkable feat in the fourth story: she manages to tell the whole wonderful thing without naming a single character.
Rating: 
Summary: The door in the hedge leads to well-worn fairy tales...
Review: All well written fairy tales fascinate and intrigue me. Having said that, I really don't feel that Ms. McKinley told these stories with enough ethereal imagery or description. In "The Stolen Princess" she is very vague about faerieland and its inhabitants. I thought her ideas were confused and not organized very well. This may have been for effect, implying faeriland cannot be described with ordinary means. The effect seemed to me to be very flat.
In "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", try as I might, I could not sympathize with the old soldier and his scars of war. Perhaps this was an allusion to the Vietnam War?? The story seemed drawn out far more than necessary.
It may sound like I am a harsh critic, but really, I love fantasy. Because I love fantasy, I cannot honestly say that I would recommend this book to avid fantasy readers. Small children would probably really enjoy it though. If you want a writer to carry you away into another world and another time, look for another book. This books lacks creativity and imagination.
Rating:
Summary: The door in the hedge leads to well-worn fairy tales...
Review: All well written fairy tales fascinate and intrigue me. Having said that, I really don't feel that Ms. McKinley told these stories with enough ethereal imagery or description. In "The Stolen Princess" she is very vague about faerieland and its inhabitants. I thought her ideas were confused and not organized very well. This may have been for effect, implying faeriland cannot be described with ordinary means. The effect seemed to me to be very flat.
In "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", try as I might, I could not sympathize with the old soldier and his scars of war. Perhaps this was an allusion to the Vietnam War?? The story seemed drawn out far more than necessary.
It may sound like I am a harsh critic, but really, I love fantasy. Because I love fantasy, I cannot honestly say that I would recommend this book to avid fantasy readers. Small children would probably really enjoy it though. If you want a writer to carry you away into another world and another time, look for another book. This books lacks creativity and imagination.
Rating:
Summary: Not my cup of tea
Review: Another young adult book by an author good at fairy tales, but this one is a collection of four fairy tales instead of a stand alone story. The book blurb says that two of the fairy tales are retellings and two are "new", but I found all of them to feel like retellings of stories I'd already heard. I didn't care for the book, but the kidlet loved it. He just likes McKinley, I think.
Rating: 
Summary: In ascending order...
Review: As I started reading this book I was afraid I wouldn't like it at all. Fortunately, the four stories are arranged in ascending order-from worst to best, so by the time I finished I had a rather favorable impression. The book starts off with an original tale by McKinley. Starting with the preface, this tale was difficult to break into. I was glad when a plot finally appeared, but by the end I was almost heart-broken by McKinley's description of Faerieland. It is interesting as an alternative viewpoint, but I certainly don't want it to be that way! The other original McKinley tale, "The Hunting of the Hind," I enjoyed much, much more. I could feel sympathetic for the characters and some of the magical elements were particularly lovely. McKinley also retells "The Princess and the Frog" and "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." She brings out the darker side of each of these tales, which left me shivering at the end, rather than glowing with the usual happy fairy tale feeling. To many (although not to me) this dark side may be preferable, and one certainly can't deny McKinley's talent for creating atmosphere in her writing. Thus, the book earns three stars and my recommendation to those who love the darker side of fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: DULL!!!!!
Review: Boring, boring, boring. I have finally figured out why I can't seem to ever like Robin McKinley's novels and stories; they BORE me!!!! How? They're almost all beautifully written, quiet and filled with magic, and yet I just can't seem to like them. They're tedious and boring. The Door in the Hedge is just as boring as all the other KcKinley stuff I read, only this time I couldn't even finish the damned book. Why, why, why can't I get into McKinley's stuff more? I have the same problem with Patricia A McKillip!! AND Patricia C. Wrede! I want so hard to like Robin's stuff, but I can't. I've given up. Altogether, McKinley's characters have sobriety and intelligence, but no spunk and no individuality. They're all the same, the supporting cast is all the same, they're all happy endings, everything. There's nothing to sink your teeth into. The poetry is there, and the ideas, but nothing gets through. Altogether, disappointing. Robin McKinley gets SO CLOSE to having wonderful stories, but always ends up falling short. I'm gving her the two stars because at least she gets close and her stories aren't shallow fluff, which I see so much of. McKinley's people and stories have so much potential, they're such good almost-people, but something's always missing. Oh, well, at least she's closer than most authors. That's something, isn't it?
Rating: 
Summary: "We Will Look. No One Has Ever Thought to Look Before"
Review: Despite an interesting title and a beguiling title page, I honestly found nothing exceptional about Robin McKinley's collection of four fairytales. Whether her stories are original or retold, they are rather dull, predictable, and written with long-winded language that makes for sluggish reading. All are centred on the interactions between this world and that of Faerieland - or to be more specific, the interactions between young princesses and the inhabitants of Faerieland. None of these girls are individuals, instead they are cast straight from the princess stereotype and all the stories end on a slightly sickly-sweet note with each dilemma that the girls' face wrapped up in a nice little bow. Faerieland is not seen as a wild and elusive place, but as a pretty sparkling land with none of the depth or hidden meaning that fairytales are meant to have. They are sweet, pretty, *pointless* tales have nothing of the ambiguity or beauty that they could.
In "The Stolen Princess", McKinley tells the tale of one of the last kingdoms that border the realm of Faery, and the anxiety that the residents face concerning the possible stealing of their children. This happened to the Queen's twin sister Ellian, and now the same thing has happened to happen to their only child Linadel. The King and Queen take it upon themselves to rescue their daughter, whilst she herself awakens in the Faerie realm to greet its inhabitants. The pacing of the story is extremely slow, the "love-at-first-sight" scenario is entirely unconvincing, and the descriptions of Faerieland are unimaginative and flat - it sounds like quite a dull place actually.
"The Princess and the Frog" is a retelling of the princess who drops her golden ball and has it returned to her by a frog. Here, the Princess Rana is saved from the malevolent power of an unwelcome suitor's necklace by a talking frog. The ending is utterly preposterous: the frog returns to his human form, and challenges the suitor Aliyander - at this stage Rana runs out of the room, down to the pond, fills a flagon with its water and rushes back to dump the whole lot on Aliyander. Presumably, since no other explanation is given, we are meant to suppose that during this lengthy interlude of running and fetching water, the two foes simply stood looking at each other, since when Rana returns neither one of them has moved. Furthermore, how Rana knows that the pond-water will destroy Aliyander is completely unexplained, and therefore comes across as random and bizzare.
"The Hunting of the Hind" is possibly the only worthwhile read, which tells of Princess Korah, whose kingdom is plauged by the beauty of a golden hind, the very sight of which drives men into madness. When this terrible affliction lands upon her beloved brother, Korah herself goes out in search of the hind to learn its secrets. However, this story too comes to an annoying ending: the hind is under a spell, which can only be broken if a person goes to the wizard who placed the curse and asks him to remove it. But to prevent the wizard from using your inner emotions against you, one must enter his presence completely devoid of any feelings. So Korah leaves her inner emotions in the keeping of the transformed hind (err, how exactly?) and asks the wizard for her freedom. That's it. I was expecting some sort of twist, some sort of test or trick that the young girl must go through, but no - that's it. To top it off, McKinley throws in a brother to the golden hind to act as love-interest for Korah - why must every Princess land herself a hubby in the course of her adventures? Can't she just have the adventure for its own sake?
Lastly is the longest story, "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" which is told from the point of view of a middle-aged soldier, and is made all the better for it - by this stage I was thoroughly tired of McKinley's flat princess-heroines. The soldier takes up the challenge of solving the mystery of the twelve princesses, whose shoes appear each morning entirely worn out, as if they have been dancing all the night long. If you have read this old fairytale, then there is nothing here that will surprise you - McKinley tells the exact same story, except she takes twice as long to do it. There is a slight shadow of intrigue with the appearance of an old woman who aids the soldier, but it's not enough to warrant the energy I used in dragging myself through this story.
As you can see, this is a rather harsh review, and if you happen to be Robin McKinley reading this - no offence! McKinley is a gifted author, and I have enjoyed many of her books, but this collection just left me entirely unsatisfied. I've tried to give legitimate reasons as to why this is simply isn't a worthwhile book, without simply ranting at it, and the truth is that it just felt completely devoid of any real magic or passion.
Rating:
Summary: Into the "Door"
Review: Despite her award-winning original fantasies, Robin McKinley will always be known as the lady who redid the classic fairy tales like "Beauty," "Spindle's End" and others. "Door in the Hedge," recently reprinted by Firebird Books, matches two retold fairy tales with two original stories, with mixed results. "The Stolen Princess" is a the rather rambly tale of a royal family's difficulties; the queen's aunt was stolen to Faerieland as a girl, and when she marries and has a daughter of her own, the young daughter is also kidnapped. Things get more complicated when old mysteries are solved. "The Hunting of the Hind" tells of a deer-woman so beautiful that she drives men mad, and the princess who is trying to free her. And McKinley presents two old fairy tales given a new spin: "The Princess and the Frog," a story of brotherly treachery, and "Twelve Dancing Princesses," given a darker tinge. Robin McKinley's writing is better suited to novels than short stories. In "The Door in the Hedge," she does a pretty good job. Not a great job, not even a good job -- just a pretty good one. When it comes to style, her writing is nearly impeccable, but it's in the actual stories told that she stumbles over her own quill pen. "Stolen Princess" takes forever to move past McKinley's lectures about customs and problems in the kingdom, but moves steadily and well once it gets to Princess Lindanel's kidnapping. This one could easily have been expanded into a full-length book. "Hunting of the Hind" is even better, tight and strong. But the two fairy-tale retellings are stilted and too short. McKinley's writing is detailed and has some moments that are pure poetry, such as Lindanel's first meeting with the prince of Faerieland, or Princess Korah finding the Hind. The biggest difficulty is the characterizations -- the three last stories are too short for her to develop the characters enough for readers to really like 'em. Flawed but pretty, "The Door in the Hedge" is a nice read for fans of retold fairy tales. Just don't expect anything like McKinley's usual level of storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: Into the "Door"
Review: Despite her award-winning original fantasies, Robin McKinley will always be known as the lady who redid the classic fairy tales like "Beauty," "Spindle's End" and others. "Door in the Hedge," recently reprinted by Firebird Books, matches two retold fairy tales with two original stories, with mixed results. "The Stolen Princess" is a the rather rambly tale of a royal family's difficulties; the queen's aunt was stolen to Faerieland as a girl, and when she marries and has a daughter of her own, the young daughter is also kidnapped. Things get more complicated when old mysteries are solved. "The Hunting of the Hind" tells of a deer-woman so beautiful that she drives men mad, and the princess who is trying to free her. And McKinley presents two old fairy tales given a new spin: "The Princess and the Frog," a story of brotherly treachery, and "Twelve Dancing Princesses," given a darker tinge. Robin McKinley's writing is better suited to novels than short stories. In "The Door in the Hedge," she does a pretty good job. Not a great job, not even a good job -- just a pretty good one. When it comes to style, her writing is nearly impeccable, but it's in the actual stories told that she stumbles over her own quill pen. "Stolen Princess" takes forever to move past McKinley's lectures about customs and problems in the kingdom, but moves steadily and well once it gets to Princess Lindanel's kidnapping. This one could easily have been expanded into a full-length book. "Hunting of the Hind" is even better, tight and strong. But the two fairy-tale retellings are stilted and too short. McKinley's writing is detailed and has some moments that are pure poetry, such as Lindanel's first meeting with the prince of Faerieland, or Princess Korah finding the Hind. The biggest difficulty is the characterizations -- the three last stories are too short for her to develop the characters enough for readers to really like 'em. Flawed but pretty, "The Door in the Hedge" is a nice read for fans of retold fairy tales. Just don't expect anything like McKinley's usual level of storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: Enchanting, engrossing fairy tales
Review: I curled up with this book in a library once and I was delighted with the simple yet rich quality of McKinley's writing. The title story seems like a simple fairy story until the last page, when the powerful theme sinks in. I recommend this book to anyone who loves dreaming of the faerie realm.
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