This fairytale collection contains four stories, two original (The Stolen Princess and The Hunting of the Hind) and two retellings (The Princess and the Frog and The Twelve Dancing Princesses). I liked them all to a certain degree, but my favorite happened to be McKinley’s version of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. When I was younger, I was never really crazy about that fairytale, but the way this story was crafted, which enabled the reader to see the story from the soldier’s point of view, helped me change my opinion and learn to love it. Definitely well done.

As for The Princess and the Frog and The Hunting of the Hind, though interesting, they were far too short and ended rather abruptly. For instance in The Princess and the Frog, Prince Aliyander’s character is never fully developed, and at story’s end, the reader’s left hanging with several questions. At first, Aliyander seems like a Uriah Heep type from David Copperfield, but then his deceptions are revealed to have a deeper and darker intent grounded in sorcery. Yet the reader’s left wondering from where did he learn his talents? Who taught him? And how was the prince captured and turned? None of this is really explained. And the final confrontation at the end is somewhat lacking in its brevity.

The same can be said for The Hunting of the Hind. The meeting with the wizard is barely a paragraph. The reader never sees him; the description merely gives a sense of his presence. Would have preferred to read some interaction and conflict between him and the princess. As it stands, the story’s OK, but could have been better if it was longer.

The Stolen Princess has a rather interesting utopian concept: a harmonious and ideal joining of two vastly different worlds. I almost wish, though, that McKinley turned it into a full novel, which would have allowed her more room to explore and expand on those themes. It does make a good story, but it could have been crafted into a fine novel.

Overall the stories are worth the read, but with the exception of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, I don’t feel they’re a good example of the fine work McKinley’s capable of.

Robin McKinley is one of my favorite authors, and I loved this book of thoughtful fairy tales, where evil attempts to overcome good, and princesses rescue themselves. Despite all the sadness along the way, the endings are happy. Here are some of my thoughts about each of the stories.

The Stolen Princess
I was so worried that the princess would stay in the faery realm and leave her parents heartbroken, but this resolved in the best possible way: instead of them having to find a new world to belong to, their parents decided to tear down the barriers between their worlds, for better or worse, combine them, leaving their children to rule over one United land. I was so happy to see the sisters reunited, as well. I still can't figure out why only boy babies and only girl teenagers were stolen. The Queen mentioned they’d only ever had sons - was stealing them how they got them? Or was that just a coincidence? Also, was the vision the princess had of the green-eyed bard about her yet-to-be-conceived brother?

Princess and the Frog
I love the subtle tweaks to this story, where the frog is just trying to help the princess, so she helps him, too. They ultimately save each other, because they are both kind, thoughtful people.

The Hunting of the Hind
I love that the heroes of these stories are the princesses, and this one is no different. It's really sad that Cora has been so forgotten by her father, but she's able to use the misfortunes in her life to help her rescue those held in bondage.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses
I love this version of this story because it’s not the bravery of youth that breaks the curse (though the soldier is indeed brave) but the steady nature and wisdom of a life lived with integrity and hard work. The soldier is smart, kind, and has good instincts. Of course, he gets some help from an “old woman” on his journey, but he still has to use all his cunning skills to pull off his nightly treks. Though, I have to think that the eldest daughter had figured out by night one what was going on. She might not be able to help anyone overtly, but she can pay slightly less attention when he pretends to drink the drugged wine, assure her sisters nothing is behind them, and happens to leave a goblet behind where he could easily pick it up. Convenient!

If you enjoy reading fairy tale type books you will probably enjoy this. It was actually a series of 3 unrelated stories. I warmed up to them as I went along.

This is one of McKinley's earliest works, a collection of fairy tale retellings. She does an excellent job of freshening them up, and making them her own.

In particular, the princess in 'The Princess and the Frog' is often portrayed as spoiled and petulant. In this version, she is struggling with an unwelcome marriage proposal from an evil magician and she joins forces with the enchanted frog to defeat him.

In 'The Golden Hind' another princess must help her brother who is dying of a broken heart because he has fallen in love with an enchanted maiden.

In 'The Stolen Princess' a kingdom on the border of Faerie has often suffered from stolen children. The Princess in question finds a way to break through the border and unite her homeland with Faerie, although at a cost.

'The 12 Dancing Princesses' has long been a favorite of mine. I enjoyed the character of the retired soldier who uses magical help and his own determination and guile to solve the puzzling enchantment.

Dealing w the insanity of our current political environment by medicating w fairy tales. Totally valid.

I Love Fairy Tales

My favorite book as a tiny child was a book of fairy tales my parents had to have gotten tired of reading over and over. Sixty years later and l still enjoy them.
I love the retelling of the old stories, and Robin McKinley is among the best of the authors who write these sorts of stories. She is an author whose books l read because l see her name on the cover of a book. Her description is marvelous. Her characters are usually fully fleshed out. I read her not just to enjoy a story, although that is reason enough, but also to try to discern how she does it.

This was a nice set of fairy tales, told in a classic style. I enjoyed it!

I was unfortunately not super into these. They weren’t bad, I just wasn’t really into them and I thought some of them had cool ideas but nothing was necessarily done with them. The Stolen Princess was my favorite of this collection.

Very beautifully written (Robin McKinley is one of those rare modern masters of lyrical, poetic language), but this book is actually an anthology of 4 shorter stories, which I didn't know when I first began it, and found disappointing. While artfully told, I can't help but wish they were longer and more fleshed-out, especially story #2 which is the weakest of the 4 and leaves much backstory unexplained. The others are more self-contained, but the villain in #2 is so vague that it ruins the whole story--everyone is terrified of him, and afraid of falling under his "sway", but it's never explained well enough to make the reader understand or sympathize, and other than an allusion to a dark source of some vague "power" that he has, the reader is left with no details about him or why he is terrifying. It's not enough to make him compelling, and the story lacks the happy tone and more satisfying conclusion of the others. It's more hurried, and suffers from pacing issues, especially at the end.
Robin McKinley is a great writer, and I feel that this story doesn't do her talent justice because of how rushed and short it was, and definitely needed at LEAST 10 more pages to be moderately decent.
Overall, still an enjoyable and worthwhile read, especially for lovers of fairy tales, but it isn't her best work!

A Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley is a small collection of short stories. There are 4 stories total, 2 new stories and 2 stories retold. My favorite was the first, The Stolen Princess; one of the new stories. She completely draws you in and before you know it, you have finished the book. I couldn't put it down. I figured that I would read a story here and there, but that didn't happen. It's the same with all her books. I finish them before I want to. I am in the process of buying up all her books so that I can read them again and again. And maybe this sounds morbid, but I am glad that she isn't dead so that she can keep writing more. I love Jane Austen but it saddens me that she died so young when she could have and would have written many more books that I am sure I would love as much as her existing ones.

just finished The Door in the Hedge, and it was delightful. This had all of the things I love about McKinley and none of the things that occasionally bother me about her. Several of the stories are retellings of existing fairy tales and one or two are original creations, but all of them have the same feeling of authenticity. I love fairy tales, and these are of the best. I particularly enjoyed the last story, a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

beautiful versions of at least 3 well-known stories along with a new one

“But the world turns, and even legends change; and somewhere there is a border, and sometime, perhaps, someone will decide to cross it, however well guarded its thorns may be.”
― Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge