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The Door in the Hedge and Other Stories
Ensorcelled princesses . . . a frog that speaks . . . a magical hind—Newbery Medal winner Robin McKinley opens a door into an enchanted world in this collection of original and retold fairy tales
The last mortal kingdom before the unmeasured sweep of Faerieland begins has at best held an uneasy truce with its unpredictable neighbor. There is nothing to show a boundary, at least on the mortal side of it; and if any ordinary human creature ever saw a faerie—or at any rate recognized one—it was never mentioned; but the existence of the boundary and of faeries beyond it is never in doubt either.
So begins “The Stolen Princess,” the first story of this collection, about the meeting between the human princess Linadel and the faerie prince Donathor. “The Princess and the Frog” concerns Rana and her unexpected alliance with a small, green, flipper-footed denizen of a pond in the palace gardens. “The Hunting of the Hind” tells of a princess who has bewitched her beloved brother, hoping to beg some magic of cure, for her brother is dying, and the last tale is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses in which an old soldier discovers, with a little help from a lavender-eyed witch, the surprising truth about where the princesses dance their shoes to tatters every night.
The last mortal kingdom before the unmeasured sweep of Faerieland begins has at best held an uneasy truce with its unpredictable neighbor. There is nothing to show a boundary, at least on the mortal side of it; and if any ordinary human creature ever saw a faerie—or at any rate recognized one—it was never mentioned; but the existence of the boundary and of faeries beyond it is never in doubt either.
So begins “The Stolen Princess,” the first story of this collection, about the meeting between the human princess Linadel and the faerie prince Donathor. “The Princess and the Frog” concerns Rana and her unexpected alliance with a small, green, flipper-footed denizen of a pond in the palace gardens. “The Hunting of the Hind” tells of a princess who has bewitched her beloved brother, hoping to beg some magic of cure, for her brother is dying, and the last tale is a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses in which an old soldier discovers, with a little help from a lavender-eyed witch, the surprising truth about where the princesses dance their shoes to tatters every night.
151 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1981
444 people are currently reading
7018 people want to read
About the author
Robin McKinley
43 books7,260 followersBorn in her mother's hometown of Warren, Ohio, Robin McKinley grew up an only child with a father in the United States Navy. She moved around frequently as a child and read copiously; she credits this background with the inspiration for her stories.
Her passion for reading was one of the most constant things in her childhood, so she began to remember events, places, and time periods by what books she read where. For example, she read Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book for the first time in California; The Chronicles of Narnia for the first time in New York; The Lord of the Rings for the first time in Japan; The Once and Future King for the first time in Maine. She still uses books to keep track of her life.
McKinley attended Gould Academy, a preparatory school in Bethel, Maine, and Dickinson College in 1970-1972. In 1975, she was graduated summa cum laude from Bowdoin College. In 1978, her first novel, Beauty, was accepted by the first publisher she sent it to, and she began her writing career, at age 26. At the time she was living in Brunswick, Maine. Since then she has lived in Boston, on a horse farm in Eastern Massachusetts, in New York City, in Blue Hill, Maine, and now in Hampshire, England, with her husband Peter Dickinson (also a writer, and with whom she co-wrote Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits in 2001) and two lurchers (crossbred sighthounds).
Over the years she has worked as an editor and transcriber (1972-73), research assistant (1976-77), bookstore clerk (1978), teacher and counselor (1978-79), editorial assistant (1979-81), barn manager (1981-82), free-lance editor (1982-85), and full-time writer. Other than writing and reading books, she divides her time mainly between walking her "hellhounds," gardening, cooking, playing the piano, homeopathy, change ringing, and keeping her blog.
Her passion for reading was one of the most constant things in her childhood, so she began to remember events, places, and time periods by what books she read where. For example, she read Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book for the first time in California; The Chronicles of Narnia for the first time in New York; The Lord of the Rings for the first time in Japan; The Once and Future King for the first time in Maine. She still uses books to keep track of her life.
McKinley attended Gould Academy, a preparatory school in Bethel, Maine, and Dickinson College in 1970-1972. In 1975, she was graduated summa cum laude from Bowdoin College. In 1978, her first novel, Beauty, was accepted by the first publisher she sent it to, and she began her writing career, at age 26. At the time she was living in Brunswick, Maine. Since then she has lived in Boston, on a horse farm in Eastern Massachusetts, in New York City, in Blue Hill, Maine, and now in Hampshire, England, with her husband Peter Dickinson (also a writer, and with whom she co-wrote Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits in 2001) and two lurchers (crossbred sighthounds).
Over the years she has worked as an editor and transcriber (1972-73), research assistant (1976-77), bookstore clerk (1978), teacher and counselor (1978-79), editorial assistant (1979-81), barn manager (1981-82), free-lance editor (1982-85), and full-time writer. Other than writing and reading books, she divides her time mainly between walking her "hellhounds," gardening, cooking, playing the piano, homeopathy, change ringing, and keeping her blog.
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October 9, 2011
One of the problems with books today is that the literary establishment looks down on genre fiction. If your fiction is fantasy or science fiction or mystery or romance or something else readily classifiable, the thinking goes, it is not literary and therefore inferior. And, of course, modern authors are expected to include any amount of “intimacy” in their novels. So someone like Robin McKinley, who writes fantasy and typically doesn’t get graphic, gets classified as a young adult genre author, which is pretty much the kiss of death as far as “literary critics” are concerned – no matter how good her writing actually is. (She has won a Newbery, though, which counts for a lot.) It’s frustrating.
Anyway, I’m quite fond of genre fiction myself, particularly fantasy and especially retellings of fairy tales, and Robin McKinley is one of my favorite authors. The Door in the Hedge is a collection of four short stories, two of which are retellings of old fairy tales (“The Twelve Dancing Princesses” and “The Princess and the Frog”) and two of which could readily be classified as fairy tales themselves* (“The Stolen Princess” and “The Hunting of the Hind”). McKinley is a master of the fairy tale; all four stories feature classic fairy tale imagery and themes. As someone who has unredacted Grimm** on her bookshelf and the whole rainbow of Andrew Lang on her Nook, I LOVE fairy tales and will never get tired of them. I definitely recommend Robin McKinley in general and The Door in the Hedge in particular to fellow fairy tale lovers.
Postscript: A random observation that doesn’t fit anywhere else: The most notable element of these stories is the enhanced role of the female characters (even in “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”; it’s subtle, but it’s there). McKinley is well-known for her dislike of the wilting flower type common in older books (*cough*edgarriceburroughs*cough*), and typically writes strong female characters like Aerin and Harry (short for Angharad). Honestly, as a kid, I never noticed this emphasis – I just thought of Aerin as a hero, regardless of gender. Shouldn’t we all strive to be brave and honest and true, regardless of what dangly bits we do or do not have? And I think McKinley generally feels the same way; unlike Tamora Pierce, McKinley can present a female character without having to constantly remind you that LOOK! A GIRL IS DOING STUFF ONLY BOYS ARE SUPPOSED TO DO! LOOK HOW SUBVERSIVE I’M BEING! (Not that I don’t like Tamora Pierce, but I found the “grrl power” motif in the Lioness Quartet very annoying.)
*The definition of the term “fairy tale” as a literary categorization of the broader genre of “traditional stories” isn’t entirely agreed-upon. Me, I know ‘em when I see ‘em.
**If the wicked stepmother gets forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she falls down dead, it’s unredacted. If she’s given a stern warning and sent to her room to think about what she did, not so much.
Anyway, I’m quite fond of genre fiction myself, particularly fantasy and especially retellings of fairy tales, and Robin McKinley is one of my favorite authors. The Door in the Hedge is a collection of four short stories, two of which are retellings of old fairy tales (“The Twelve Dancing Princesses” and “The Princess and the Frog”) and two of which could readily be classified as fairy tales themselves* (“The Stolen Princess” and “The Hunting of the Hind”). McKinley is a master of the fairy tale; all four stories feature classic fairy tale imagery and themes. As someone who has unredacted Grimm** on her bookshelf and the whole rainbow of Andrew Lang on her Nook, I LOVE fairy tales and will never get tired of them. I definitely recommend Robin McKinley in general and The Door in the Hedge in particular to fellow fairy tale lovers.
Postscript: A random observation that doesn’t fit anywhere else: The most notable element of these stories is the enhanced role of the female characters (even in “The Twelve Dancing Princesses”; it’s subtle, but it’s there). McKinley is well-known for her dislike of the wilting flower type common in older books (*cough*edgarriceburroughs*cough*), and typically writes strong female characters like Aerin and Harry (short for Angharad). Honestly, as a kid, I never noticed this emphasis – I just thought of Aerin as a hero, regardless of gender. Shouldn’t we all strive to be brave and honest and true, regardless of what dangly bits we do or do not have? And I think McKinley generally feels the same way; unlike Tamora Pierce, McKinley can present a female character without having to constantly remind you that LOOK! A GIRL IS DOING STUFF ONLY BOYS ARE SUPPOSED TO DO! LOOK HOW SUBVERSIVE I’M BEING! (Not that I don’t like Tamora Pierce, but I found the “grrl power” motif in the Lioness Quartet very annoying.)
*The definition of the term “fairy tale” as a literary categorization of the broader genre of “traditional stories” isn’t entirely agreed-upon. Me, I know ‘em when I see ‘em.
**If the wicked stepmother gets forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she falls down dead, it’s unredacted. If she’s given a stern warning and sent to her room to think about what she did, not so much.
February 23, 2018
2/23/18 on sale for $1.99 for Kindle version.
August 20, 2015
A collection of four stories, all in an exquisite enchanting prose style. She has the voice down pat, it can draw you in on its own.
Two are retellings, one of "The Frog Princess" and the other of "The Twelve Dancing Princess," in which elements are added that shift the significance of events in the tale. I think the second is my favorite of this.
There's also an original tale about the fairies -- the Fair Folk -- and the last mortal land, where the fairies take infant boys and maidens nearly old enough to marry. And the royal family of that land.
And the fourth one also has some fairy tale elements, a magical hind in the woods, but I think it's the weakest of the four.
Two are retellings, one of "The Frog Princess" and the other of "The Twelve Dancing Princess," in which elements are added that shift the significance of events in the tale. I think the second is my favorite of this.
There's also an original tale about the fairies -- the Fair Folk -- and the last mortal land, where the fairies take infant boys and maidens nearly old enough to marry. And the royal family of that land.
And the fourth one also has some fairy tale elements, a magical hind in the woods, but I think it's the weakest of the four.
October 20, 2015
Robin McKinley writes a mean fairy tale, whether she's reworking an old classic ("The Twelve Dancing Princesses," "The Princess and the Frog", "The Golden Hind") or writing her own ("The Stolen Princess"). I love how atmospheric these stories are: you step into each story slowly until you're fully submerged, almost ensorcelled yourself.
The characters and their histories are fleshed out well beyond the scope of the original fairy tales. The soldier in "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" becomes an old campaigner who can't go back to his old life; the court in "The Princess and the Frog" has a powerful visitor who has overstayed his welcome. The women are all still as beautiful as the moon and the men are all stalwart and true, but I'd be willing to attribute that to the fairy tales, rather than to McKinley. The only consistent weakness in the stories was plot-related. It's most apparent in "The Golden Hind," But ultimately, the stories are so well-written that I didn't really mind.
The characters and their histories are fleshed out well beyond the scope of the original fairy tales. The soldier in "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" becomes an old campaigner who can't go back to his old life; the court in "The Princess and the Frog" has a powerful visitor who has overstayed his welcome. The women are all still as beautiful as the moon and the men are all stalwart and true, but I'd be willing to attribute that to the fairy tales, rather than to McKinley. The only consistent weakness in the stories was plot-related. It's most apparent in "The Golden Hind," But ultimately, the stories are so well-written that I didn't really mind.
June 19, 2025
Sometimes you just need that whimsical old fantasy feeling to enrapture you as the world falls apart irl and no one captured that sensation better than Robin McKinley.
I loved each and individual story so much
I loved each and individual story so much
July 18, 2017
Robin McKinley’s strong suit is not short stories. Her books usually start off slow and take a while to warm up and become interesting, and with short stories, that sort of thing just doesn’t work out as well. While the stories themselves had interesting plots, the way McKinley writes most of them is plodding, to say the least. The first story kept losing my interest, but I know how her writing works, so I continued on, regardless of how bored I was from her initial set-up. With that said, however, the first story is by far the weakest and the stories only get stronger and more interesting as the book moves along, which I really appreciated. Well done on whoever created the chronology for this anthology, because the best stories were put last, so there was only buildup and things to look forward to rather than reading a great story at first and then getting disappointed by the next one.
I’m a huge fan of fairy tales, which is part of the reason why I picked up this book. I very much enjoyed the retelling of the Princess and the Frog. While predictable, it was still an interesting twist on the original tale, and I absolutely LOVED the twelve dancing princesses retelling. It could have been several pages shorter, but it was overall quite well done.
Basically, this is great if you’re a fan of fairy tales and Robin McKinley. It takes a lot to to get through the set ups of most of the stories, but they do have some sort of payoff that I felt was worthwhile. It’s not amazing by any means, nor are these particular retellings must-reads, but they’re great if you’re in need for a fairy tale fix.
Also posted on Purple People Readers.
I’m a huge fan of fairy tales, which is part of the reason why I picked up this book. I very much enjoyed the retelling of the Princess and the Frog. While predictable, it was still an interesting twist on the original tale, and I absolutely LOVED the twelve dancing princesses retelling. It could have been several pages shorter, but it was overall quite well done.
Basically, this is great if you’re a fan of fairy tales and Robin McKinley. It takes a lot to to get through the set ups of most of the stories, but they do have some sort of payoff that I felt was worthwhile. It’s not amazing by any means, nor are these particular retellings must-reads, but they’re great if you’re in need for a fairy tale fix.
Also posted on Purple People Readers.
July 28, 2016
The Door in the Hedge was a bit different than anything else I've read by Robin McKinley. One thing I love about her writing is that she manages to retain that classic fairy-tale style of writing, but still throw in her original style as well. The first story in the collection was perhaps my favorite, though her retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses was very good, too.
Overall, it was an excellent, light read that felt like you were soaking up an old classic without having to think too much about it...Robin McKinley's books are almost always worth reading!
Overall, it was an excellent, light read that felt like you were soaking up an old classic without having to think too much about it...Robin McKinley's books are almost always worth reading!
August 6, 2013
This book includes four short stories:
_The Stolen princess;(2,5 stars)
_The Princess and the Frog (2 stars, the story was just too short!)
_The Hunting of the Hind (3 stars..)
_The Twelve Dancing Princesses (3,5 stars)
Okay i'll admit that a three star rating for Robin Mckinley writing is absurd. She's one of the great ones able to transport me to magical worlds, with her beautiful smooth writing.
I guess these short stories are told in the classical/traditional fairy tale way, and after having read so many fairy tales retellings i can't help comparing this one, with other tales i've read...namely Wildwood Dancing. A retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"/ "Princess and the Frog" fairy tales. Which i guess is unfair...
For those who like "classical" fairy tales (with love at first sight..no character development, and things like that) i think you'll enjoy this quite a lot. For others who have been "spoiled" by a certain modernization that has re-written today retellings of fairy tales, this will probably rank a little lower....despite the beautiful writing.
_The Stolen princess;(2,5 stars)
_The Princess and the Frog (2 stars, the story was just too short!)
_The Hunting of the Hind (3 stars..)
_The Twelve Dancing Princesses (3,5 stars)
Okay i'll admit that a three star rating for Robin Mckinley writing is absurd. She's one of the great ones able to transport me to magical worlds, with her beautiful smooth writing.
I guess these short stories are told in the classical/traditional fairy tale way, and after having read so many fairy tales retellings i can't help comparing this one, with other tales i've read...namely Wildwood Dancing. A retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"/ "Princess and the Frog" fairy tales. Which i guess is unfair...
For those who like "classical" fairy tales (with love at first sight..no character development, and things like that) i think you'll enjoy this quite a lot. For others who have been "spoiled" by a certain modernization that has re-written today retellings of fairy tales, this will probably rank a little lower....despite the beautiful writing.
August 21, 2021
Nothing says romance like: "I'm no longer young so I'll take the oldest."
I know it was in the original story but geesh...if ever there was a time to take creative license.
This collection of short stories contains two familiar favorites (The Frog Princess and 12 Dancing Princesses) and two new works (at least, new to me: The Stolen Princess and The Hunting of the Hind.) All of them rely heavily on the McKinley brand of poetic writing that sucks you in and makes no sense if you pause long enough to think about it.
I enjoyed the stories well enough but the classic stories contained nothing new and the original stories nothing I wanted. Maybe fleshed out versions would work better. But all of them had more in common with Spindle's End than The Blue Sword
I know it was in the original story but geesh...if ever there was a time to take creative license.
This collection of short stories contains two familiar favorites (The Frog Princess and 12 Dancing Princesses) and two new works (at least, new to me: The Stolen Princess and The Hunting of the Hind.) All of them rely heavily on the McKinley brand of poetic writing that sucks you in and makes no sense if you pause long enough to think about it.
I enjoyed the stories well enough but the classic stories contained nothing new and the original stories nothing I wanted. Maybe fleshed out versions would work better. But all of them had more in common with Spindle's End than The Blue Sword
August 21, 2008
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.
March 6, 2011
Robin McKinley is the queen of modern fairy tale writers, and "Door in the Hedge" is an impressive addition to her works. DITH is McKinley's second published work, after "Beauty", and contains four fairy tales -- two originals ("The Stolen Princess" and "The Hunting of the Hind"), and two traditional tales retold ("The Princess and the Frog" and "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"). As always, McKinley's use of language is flawless. Many recent retellings of fairy tales seem to bend over backwards to include modern language, as if looking for a hook for the reader. McKinley's uses her words as a paintbrush, so that the very vocabulary and sentence structure create the stories' atmosphere, as much as do her descriptions and narratives. The stories in DITH are lovely and compelling, and while the book is a quick read as a whole, the mood created lingers long after the stories end. Highly recommended for anyone new to the works of Robin McKinley, as well as anyone who loves well-written fantasy. Magical and unforgettable.
April 21, 2015
Robin McKinley is one of my favourite authors, so I have to confess to being disappointed by this one of her earlier works. I've had the experience before with her short stories of them being nice but not doing anything much for me, but usually there would be one gem in there to make me take back anything I ever said.
These stories are all... fine. Just fine. The first one is a beautiful backstory of a kingdom where baby boys are stolen by the fairies, but girls left until they are seventeen in the first flush of beauty. But the fairies never end a family line - they never take an only.
And the princess is the only one, so surely, surely they couldn't...
Gorgeous backstory, right? But then - no confrontation, no quest, no revelation. She doesn't have to fight to get her memories back. There's no climax. It drifts to a happy ending.
And that's the way with all these stories. They drift to a conclusion, but never fight for it. And I wish there had been a little bit more struggle, or cunning, to make it feel like the happy endings were earned.
These stories are all... fine. Just fine. The first one is a beautiful backstory of a kingdom where baby boys are stolen by the fairies, but girls left until they are seventeen in the first flush of beauty. But the fairies never end a family line - they never take an only.
And the princess is the only one, so surely, surely they couldn't...
Gorgeous backstory, right? But then - no confrontation, no quest, no revelation. She doesn't have to fight to get her memories back. There's no climax. It drifts to a happy ending.
And that's the way with all these stories. They drift to a conclusion, but never fight for it. And I wish there had been a little bit more struggle, or cunning, to make it feel like the happy endings were earned.
September 25, 2024
This is a Robin McKinley compilation of several short fairy tales. I found it to be mostly uninspiring, like almost all short stories, but enjoyable and charming for what it is. There are four stories, some much longer than others, and our theme for the day is princesses. There are two original tales, as well as two retellings: the princess and the frog (my favorite, and the shortest) and the twelve dancing princesses.
Overall, I remain puzzled by the fact that I ADORE McKinley's Damar-world books, but have been somewhat less than impressed by everything else I've read from her.
Overall, I remain puzzled by the fact that I ADORE McKinley's Damar-world books, but have been somewhat less than impressed by everything else I've read from her.
July 17, 2022
I really enjoy reading this, though I can't say there's much that's objectively good about these stories. They're poorly paced and a little senseless, and sometimes even stupid. Bad guys are defeated too easily and quickly and all of the endings feel anti-climatic. Each story could be summed up as "this girl was really hot and beautiful, and she looked at this guy, who was also hot and beautiful, and the evil went up in smoke, and then there was a wedding."
However, because it's Robin McKinley, the writing has a really atmospheric old-world quality that you can't really find anywhere else. There's also a glimmer of McKinley's brilliance here (particularly in the depiction of Alora and Gilvan's relationship in the first story) that hints at what makes The Blue Sword and Hero and the Crown so great. And even though the romances were slightly gimmicky, I still enjoyed them for what they were, because I personally like the tropes McKinley plays with in her books. So I'd definitely recommend this to die-hard McKinley fans, especially fans of her older work (if they haven't already read this), but would hesitate to give it to someone who only knows YA fantasy from the last 10-15 years.
However, because it's Robin McKinley, the writing has a really atmospheric old-world quality that you can't really find anywhere else. There's also a glimmer of McKinley's brilliance here (particularly in the depiction of Alora and Gilvan's relationship in the first story) that hints at what makes The Blue Sword and Hero and the Crown so great. And even though the romances were slightly gimmicky, I still enjoyed them for what they were, because I personally like the tropes McKinley plays with in her books. So I'd definitely recommend this to die-hard McKinley fans, especially fans of her older work (if they haven't already read this), but would hesitate to give it to someone who only knows YA fantasy from the last 10-15 years.
July 17, 2022
I really enjoy reading this, though I can't say there's much that's objectively good about these stories. They're poorly paced and a little senseless, and sometimes even stupid. Bad guys are defeated too easily and quickly and all of the endings feel anti-climatic. Each story could be summed up as "this girl was really hot and beautiful, and she looked at this guy, who was also hot and beautiful, and the evil went up in smoke, and then there was a wedding."
However, because it's Robin McKinley, the writing has a really atmospheric old-world quality that you can't really find anywhere else. There's also a glimmer of McKinley's brilliance here (particularly in the depiction of Alora and Gilvan's relationship in the first story) that hints at what makes The Blue Sword and Hero and the Crown so great. And even though the romances were slightly gimmicky, I still enjoyed them for what they were, because I personally like the tropes McKinley plays with in her books. So I'd definitely recommend this to die-hard McKinley fans, especially fans of her older work (if they haven't already read this), but would hesitate to give it to someone who only knows YA fantasy from the last 10-15 years.
However, because it's Robin McKinley, the writing has a really atmospheric old-world quality that you can't really find anywhere else. There's also a glimmer of McKinley's brilliance here (particularly in the depiction of Alora and Gilvan's relationship in the first story) that hints at what makes The Blue Sword and Hero and the Crown so great. And even though the romances were slightly gimmicky, I still enjoyed them for what they were, because I personally like the tropes McKinley plays with in her books. So I'd definitely recommend this to die-hard McKinley fans, especially fans of her older work (if they haven't already read this), but would hesitate to give it to someone who only knows YA fantasy from the last 10-15 years.
February 11, 2021
It’s alright. I’ve read better. I know they’re fairytales, but I wish she would have given the women more agency. The originals weren’t bad in that respect, but none of the princesses speak in the 12 dancing princesses and that’s not fair to me.
June 26, 2025
6/26/25 - Still a five star read!
......
These stories are such a lush joy to experience. The retelling of the 12 dancing princesses in particular is my favorite version of that story ever - it has a glittery, dark undertone to it that gives it much more depth.
......
These stories are such a lush joy to experience. The retelling of the 12 dancing princesses in particular is my favorite version of that story ever - it has a glittery, dark undertone to it that gives it much more depth.
April 5, 2017
Oh how I adore McKinley's writing although I do have to admit that I prefer her longer stories to these shorter ones even though these stories were very good as well.
The Stolen Princess was about changelings ... er, almost as the fae kind of stole a kid from a family (boys in their infancy, girls in their late teens), but didn't quite give a child in return. One of the kids who gets taken in the middle of the night is a princess as the story's name indicates. Both the premise and execution were really good BUT the story didn't quite resonate with me as I would've liked to.
My least favourite story was actually the the first story in this collection - The Stolen Princess. It was good, but I have to say that the second story - The Princess and the Frog stole my heart and that story was definitely way too short. I would usually say that The Princess and the Frog is one of my least favourite fairy tales but McKinley's version was awesome and I was left wanting a story at least three times as long.
The third story - The Hunting of the Hind - was also really good and I think if McKinley had written more, it could've been magnificent. But what I really liked about this story was the fact that the savior of the day was a princess no-one actually seemed to believe in.
And the last story - The Twelve Dancing Princesses - is a story that I've always liked about princesses who dance away their dancing shoes in the middle of the night. McKinley's version was also really good but I think I kind of prefer the original to this one.
All in all, a very pleasant reading experience.
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The Stolen Princess was about changelings ... er, almost as the fae kind of stole a kid from a family (boys in their infancy, girls in their late teens), but didn't quite give a child in return. One of the kids who gets taken in the middle of the night is a princess as the story's name indicates. Both the premise and execution were really good BUT the story didn't quite resonate with me as I would've liked to.
My least favourite story was actually the the first story in this collection - The Stolen Princess. It was good, but I have to say that the second story - The Princess and the Frog stole my heart and that story was definitely way too short. I would usually say that The Princess and the Frog is one of my least favourite fairy tales but McKinley's version was awesome and I was left wanting a story at least three times as long.
The third story - The Hunting of the Hind - was also really good and I think if McKinley had written more, it could've been magnificent. But what I really liked about this story was the fact that the savior of the day was a princess no-one actually seemed to believe in.
And the last story - The Twelve Dancing Princesses - is a story that I've always liked about princesses who dance away their dancing shoes in the middle of the night. McKinley's version was also really good but I think I kind of prefer the original to this one.
All in all, a very pleasant reading experience.
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July 25, 2023
Felt a little like Spindle's End, but not distinctly McKinley. I keep hoping to find a book that captures the magic of The Blue Sword and Chalice, but Intisar Khanani and Elisabeth George Speare and Shannon Hale keep doing that better than McKinley herself...
Ah well. All in all, a decent collection of retellings that felt like a grown-up version of Gail Carson Levine, with a little more ethereal terror and a little less whimsy. I liked it. I liked the audiobook reader. Probably the Princess & the Frog story was my favorite (but it needed more!).
Ah well. All in all, a decent collection of retellings that felt like a grown-up version of Gail Carson Levine, with a little more ethereal terror and a little less whimsy. I liked it. I liked the audiobook reader. Probably the Princess & the Frog story was my favorite (but it needed more!).
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August 23, 2025I prefer McKinley's longform stuff, but I did like these. I think the first story might have been my favorite, mostly because I am very into various tellings of Faerieland and I liked this one, but overall they're just pretty good stories with strong female characters. Not my absolute favorite retellings, but they serve well as such. I was fairly confused during most of them and I genuinely don't think it was like a McKillip type of bewilderment it was just... vague and unexplanatory in some senses. Also good Lord the age gaps but that is kind of irrelevant.
June 23, 2023
I’ve read this so many times and every time I read it I love it. Elements of horror, melancholia and madness mixed in with fairy tales. Written in such a lovely way.
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April 30, 202030 April 2020: $1.99 on Kindle
June 9, 2025
I enjoyed this book so much when it came out and it was love to revisit Robin McKinley's The Door in the Hedge and Other Stories in audio.
The Door in the Hedge is Robin McKinley's clever retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princeses, The Stolen Princesses, The Princess and the Frog, and The Hunting of the Hind.
The audio version is beautifully performed by Bianca Amato.
The Door in the Hedge is Robin McKinley's clever retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princeses, The Stolen Princesses, The Princess and the Frog, and The Hunting of the Hind.
The audio version is beautifully performed by Bianca Amato.
March 4, 2017
Four fairy tales, two retold and two new, in beautiful prose by a master spinner of the fairytale. Overall, it doesn't quite reach the grade set by the author herself.
October 30, 2015
This book contained four short stories. Two were retellings of classic fairy tales, and two were originals.
I have two general issues with this book.
First, I think the author's style of writing in this book is best described as self-indulgent. The lengthy and complex sentences were not improved by their length or complexity; this went beyond the descriptive pros style that works well in this type of storytelling. Typical lengthy paragraphs were made up of only two or three sentences. I frequently got lost in particular sentences. Consider the following example:
While an occasional meandering sentence like this can have its place stylistically, for the majority of sentences in a book to be like this was extremely cumbersome.
Second, I felt as though in the original stories, the author was too vague or too mysterious, creating plot holes. The stories seemed to jump from one major event to another so quickly that I wondered if I had missed a page filling the gaps.
All things considered, I think the author's stories and retellings were creative, but could have been written in a way that more effectively told her stories.
I have two general issues with this book.
First, I think the author's style of writing in this book is best described as self-indulgent. The lengthy and complex sentences were not improved by their length or complexity; this went beyond the descriptive pros style that works well in this type of storytelling. Typical lengthy paragraphs were made up of only two or three sentences. I frequently got lost in particular sentences. Consider the following example:
"And the soldier, as he bought himself meals and a hayloft to sleep in by doing small jobs for the people he met-- and he found, however slow the last twenty years had made him, that his hands and back still knew how to lift and heave a pitchfork, how to back a skittish horse to a plough or wagon-- he found in him also a strange and rootless desire to leave the mountains for the first time in his life, to descend to the lowlands and go at last to the King's city at the mouth of the river, and see the castle of the man for whom he had worked, nameless, all the years of his youth." Location 1603 of the ebook
While an occasional meandering sentence like this can have its place stylistically, for the majority of sentences in a book to be like this was extremely cumbersome.
Second, I felt as though in the original stories, the author was too vague or too mysterious, creating plot holes. The stories seemed to jump from one major event to another so quickly that I wondered if I had missed a page filling the gaps.
All things considered, I think the author's stories and retellings were creative, but could have been written in a way that more effectively told her stories.
May 8, 2017
It's Robin McKinley, so it is, of course, beautifully written (with a caveat I'll get to in a moment).
It's in the fairy-tale genre, so you need to be willing to accept that princes and princesses are (nearly) all wise, beautiful, good, brave, and kind. There is one commoner protagonist, but the rest are all royal, and noble in both senses of the word.
You also need to be able to accept that marrying people off to other people who they've never spent any time with is a reasonable thing to do, and that (in at least one case) the woman's consent is not particularly required for this. Leave your feminism, as well as your Marxism, if any, at the door. You could blame the source genre, but... eh. The author managed to give a female protagonist plenty of agency in The Blue Sword. I found the king offering his daughters up as prizes hard to forgive.
My other gripe is about the semicolons. An occasional semicolon is fine; it shows that two thoughts are linked together more tightly than two separate sentences would convey. But when the vast majority of your sentences include a semicolon (I am not exaggerating - far more sentences have one than lack one), and not a few of them contain two semicolons, at that point it's moved beyond a stylistic choice, and has gone all the way past an annoying tic to become an outright fault in the writing.
If none of those three issues bother you too much, these are beautifully told (or retold) stories by a highly capable author.
It's in the fairy-tale genre, so you need to be willing to accept that princes and princesses are (nearly) all wise, beautiful, good, brave, and kind. There is one commoner protagonist, but the rest are all royal, and noble in both senses of the word.
You also need to be able to accept that marrying people off to other people who they've never spent any time with is a reasonable thing to do, and that (in at least one case) the woman's consent is not particularly required for this. Leave your feminism, as well as your Marxism, if any, at the door. You could blame the source genre, but... eh. The author managed to give a female protagonist plenty of agency in The Blue Sword. I found the king offering his daughters up as prizes hard to forgive.
My other gripe is about the semicolons. An occasional semicolon is fine; it shows that two thoughts are linked together more tightly than two separate sentences would convey. But when the vast majority of your sentences include a semicolon (I am not exaggerating - far more sentences have one than lack one), and not a few of them contain two semicolons, at that point it's moved beyond a stylistic choice, and has gone all the way past an annoying tic to become an outright fault in the writing.
If none of those three issues bother you too much, these are beautifully told (or retold) stories by a highly capable author.
April 24, 2015
I don't know what to say about this book. It was boring. I really struggled with it. I really like books full of short stories, I really do, but the stories in this one were WAY too short. Robin McKinley tends to wander off in la la land, and doesn't ever get to the point. I feel like she tried to cram too many events into too short a time frame. In the first story, I wasn't quite clear on what the actual problem was. I liked the characters, I thought the story had potential until princess Linadel disappeared. Then it went downhill from there. The second story was WAY too short. it lasted about ten pages. Most of it the princess is fretting about how to solve her problems, and then all of a sudden, on the last page, Poof, she magically knows a solution. The third story wandered too much. I mostly just skimmed it. It gave too much description on things that needed it and not enough description on things that did (i.e. what the golden hind actually IS). The last story, I was not impressed with at all. The twelve dancing princesses is one of my favorite fairytales, and Robin McKinley ruined it. I did not have the patience to even finish it. I was NOT impressed with this book, and this is last time I will attempt to read a Robin McKinley book just because a lot of people say its good.
January 17, 2019
Basic Premise: Retellings of classic faerie tales. At least, 3 of them are. I think one of them may be original, but it is stylistically so similar to a "classic" tale that the arguing is simply semantic.
McKinley has long been one of my favorite authors (you should see how battered my copy of The Hero and the Crown is), and this volume simply reinforced that knowledge. I found myself so caught up in the tales that I didn't want to do anything but sit and read. It was a feeling I get only from certain authors. McKinley truly has a grasp of the magical. She didn't completely re-invent the tales (as she did with Spindle's End, Outlaws of Sherwood, and Beauty), but she added depth to the plots and characters that were missing from the originals. She somehow kept the simple beauty of the tales, though. It seems paradoxical, but it's true. If you get the chance to lay your hands on this book, snag it. The stories are fantastic for adults, but could even be read to older children (those who could sit through a chapter book). Not that the material is at all inappropriate, it's quite tame, just that the stories are longish and a smaller child would get antsy.
McKinley has long been one of my favorite authors (you should see how battered my copy of The Hero and the Crown is), and this volume simply reinforced that knowledge. I found myself so caught up in the tales that I didn't want to do anything but sit and read. It was a feeling I get only from certain authors. McKinley truly has a grasp of the magical. She didn't completely re-invent the tales (as she did with Spindle's End, Outlaws of Sherwood, and Beauty), but she added depth to the plots and characters that were missing from the originals. She somehow kept the simple beauty of the tales, though. It seems paradoxical, but it's true. If you get the chance to lay your hands on this book, snag it. The stories are fantastic for adults, but could even be read to older children (those who could sit through a chapter book). Not that the material is at all inappropriate, it's quite tame, just that the stories are longish and a smaller child would get antsy.
December 5, 2007
This book was good---a bit short to me, but good. Robin McKinley tells 4 stories in this book. The first(The Door in the Hedge) tells the story of Princes Linadel and her seventeenth birthday, the second being The Hunting of the Hind (i think?) where Korah's brother is bewitched by the hind and it is up to her to save him from the spell. The third one is a favorite: The Frog Princess. Princess Rana is courted- unhappily- by the Prince ALiyander, a sorcerer. She finds a frog in the pond who retrieves a necklace for her---except this frog is not ordinary--it can speak. The last tory is of The Twelve Dancing Princesses--the princesses are enspelled to dance through the soles of their shoes every night until a war-weary soldier comes to uncover their secret.
January 12, 2016
Gave up a dozen pages into the second story.
Unfortunately these novellas were nothing like McKinley’s Rose Daughter, which I really liked. Maybe she learned her craft on them. Maybe ... who knows?
Too much telling, too little empathy. Not so much bad as not engaging.
Don't waste your time.
Unfortunately these novellas were nothing like McKinley’s Rose Daughter, which I really liked. Maybe she learned her craft on them. Maybe ... who knows?
Too much telling, too little empathy. Not so much bad as not engaging.
Don't waste your time.
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