R- Deerskin (x,b)
PG16- The Outlaws of Sherwood (x,v)
PG13- The Hero and the Crown (v), Rose Daughter (b)
PG- Beauty (slight b), The Door in the Hedge (slight b), The Blue Sword (slight v)
The first book of McKinley's that I read was The Hero and the Crown, which is a classical fantasy novel done in an unusual (and Newbery award-winning) style. McKinley never promises a perfect world; what she does give her characters is the chance to choose fate. She writes lyrically, with an interesting perspective that moves from the archetypal to the ordinary and back again with impressive grace. Her books usually have romantic plotlines woven into the "save the world" themes. She also has no qualms about introducing magic at unexpected moments. She seems to like the idea of humans as the workers of miracles within the confines of their fates- as though they were predestined to act and yet chose their actions. McKinley seems to do an excellent job of taking legends and turning them into humans with families, friends, worries, and dreams all their own. Her work generally contains a good variety of tones while preserving the personalities of the characters.
Both Aerin of The Hero and the Crown and Harry from The Blue Sword (the prequel which happens afterward chronologically) are strong women who love the wild land known as Damar. Both are unwilling yet courageous heroines driven by love of the land, the people, and the animals (and their amazing horses). The two heroines are bound across time and both have similar tasks to fulfill, but they choose different paths to their ends. Both books are a mixture of lighthearted and painful episodes with characters whose personalities both change and become stronger over time. Both of these books are appropriate for teenagers, though they are also interesting to older readers.
Harry is not from Damar. She is from Home, a land over the sea that has conquered most of old Damar and made it into a colony. Harry's brother is stationed in Damar, so when her father dies before she can be married, she is summarily shipped off to be taken in by friends of her brother. Yet Harry finds that she loves the strange land of Damar, despite its deserts and its strange people. It has become more than home to her- it has become a place she wants to protect. But being a bridge between two cultures is never easy, especially when they have been at war for decades. With the strange allies and a hopeless cause, Harry sets out to save the world, or at least her little part of it. With luck, along the way she'll figure out how to save herself.
Aerin's story is darker in tone, and it happens several hundred years before Harry's. Aerin is the daughter of the King of Damar, but few treat her as such because her mother was from the North. Some even say her mother was a witch who was trying to have a boy child to rule Damar. But she has long since died, so no one can wring the truth out of her. Aerin spends little time in the normal passtimes of the court, prefering instead to make friends with other misfits, especially an old horse of royal breeding. Together they decide to make a name for themselves- killing dragons. It's not the hobby of a normal princess. But Aerin could never be normal, because dragons are only the beginning of her extraordinary life trying to walk the path her mother left for her.
First there is Beauty: a retelling of the story of Beauty and the Beast, which is quite similar to the Disney production (though it pre-dates that movie) in several parts, but expands dramatically from there. She renders the story in a classical style, with the older traditional elements of invisible house-keepers in the palace and Beauty as the youngest of three sisters. This version is pleasant to read, and would probably be well-liked by girls around the ages of 13-16 or so.
Rose Daughter is completely different. In this one, McKinley has returned to the tale of Beauty and the Beast, which she said she wouldn't do, but I'm really glad she changed her mind. The characters and setting are so intensely in-depth that I will never be able to imagine Beauty again without her family and her town around her. Also, McKinley has included massive details about roses and gardening, and she changed the story of why the Beast looks the way he does. Throughout this novel, the reader is led to believe that she knows what will happen next- and sometimes it does. And sometimes something completely out of the blue happens. With a surprise ending that was written much better than Mercedes Lackey's Fire Rose, this book was both pleasant to read and thought-provoking- a rare combination.
I first read Beauty in grad school, for a YA lit class (age 22), and enjoyed it. So it's not just for teenage girls! ;-) This is my favorite version of the B&B tale, because this Beauty is intelligent and independent, and I approve of her attitude towards books--she would fit in well with the sort of women I have as friends. I don't have time to write a full-fledged review addenda now, but feel free to mention that your 20-something male reviewer liked it. It's on my own top 100 list. (I haven't read "Rose Daughter", so I can't compare the two of them.)
The other books of McKinley's which I have read include The Outlaws of Sherwood, a comical and romantic perspective on the legend of Robin Hood (warning: gets more serious and bloody toward the end). It departs from the usual expectations that Robin Hood is a great archer (he's pretty bad- sometimes he just gets lucky), that Marion is a passive victim (she's the best planner in the lot), and that living in the woods is romantic (somebody has to dig latrines and tend cookfires). The addition of a couple of minor characters not in many versions and the lack of easy solutions for the Merry Men (who are more hungry than merry...) make this a more interesting rendition than most.
Deerskin, which is the tale of a woman dealing with a traumatic childhood, is strongly women-oriented and would probably be uncomfortable for most men to read. The main character is a princess who grew up without her mother and with a domineering and distant father. The only person she truly loved was her dog. When her world falls apart, she runs away from home and seeks healing in being something other than a princess, but her past cannot let her go. This novel seems like a normal book in many places, but it is extremely disturbing in others. Women who have experienced interpersonal violence may find that the princess resonates for them in both her pain and her healing process.
The Door in the Hedge is a collection of four fairy tales retold in McKinley's delightful style. As usual, they star a number of princesses and their points of view instead of simply the traditional perspectives that may have belittled them. Some of the stories are better than others; my personal favorite is the last, the only one written as a non-princess main character (actually an old soldier trying to save the 12 dancing princesses from their enchantment). In all, this is well written with happy endings for all and would probably be perfect for kids aged 9-14, although older readers may enjoy it as much as I did.
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Last Updated: August 4, 1999
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