The Hidden Land

The Secret Country #2

by Pamela Dean

The five cousins are still trapped in the Secret Country, and must play their parts. When the King is poisoned, Ted-Prince Edward-must take the throne, even though he has no idea how to rule a country, battle magic, or inspire followers.  Soon enough he will have to do all three because the Country is on the verge of war with the treacherous Dragon King.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Dragons, High Fantasy, Magic

272 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 1, 1986

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Pamela Dean is an American fantasy author best known for Tam Lin, a novel that reimagines the classic Scottish fairy tale in a Midwestern college setting inspired by her alma mater, Carleton College. She has written six novels, including The Secret Country Trilogy, The Dubious Hills, and Juniper, Gentian, and Rosemary, and has contributed short stories to various anthologies.
A member of the influential writing group The Scribblies, alongside authors such as Emma Bull and Patricia Wrede, Dean was also a contributor to the Liavek shared-world anthologies and is part of the Pre-Joycean Fellowship. Her work is often praised for its lyrical prose, literary depth, and rich mythological influences.
Both Tam Lin and The Dubious Hills were nominated for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. She has also written essays and reviews, showcasing her deep engagement with fantasy literature. Readers drawn to intelligent, literary fantasy with a strong sense of folklore and academia will find much to love in her work.

Reviews

[Cara M · Rating 5 out of 5]

"That talent of mine that in my country turns to sorcery, in yours turns to this making up." (italics mine).

Essentially, this and the Secret Country should have been one book. I would have still been furious with it for being desperately and deliciously subtle, but the jarring feeling of the beginning where the pov is a little less coherent wouldn't have happened. Also, they are entirely unsatisfying apart. Not that they are entirely satisfying together. But a lot of that has to do with, well, the reality of it, where a bitterly real world is regardless tempting to stay in. And closed worlds, where you grow up twice and never get to go back, are the worst and the best of them all.

Like Narnia. Without gods or second chances. And with so many disappointments... I want a sequel for each of the characters. I want to know what happens next, and what happened there, and what the ceremonies of the green caves were like, and what Ellen felt, and I want to be with Patrick as he works out the answers to all his questions - because I'm Patrick. It is not nearly enough. And yet there is so much already.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually liked this sequel better than the first book, but you absolutely must read the Secret Country beforehand. Dean does give a brief introduction/recap in the first few chapters, but it's hard to explain what you're missing... characterization, I think. It's hard to really understand Fence and Randolph, in particular, without having read the Secret Country first. And the whole nebulous concept of the Secret Country vs the real world and how the children's imagination interacts with it and how the Secret Country even exists- this all requires reading the books in order.

Anyway. Ahh. The Shakespeare is strong with this one. We have quotes, we have allusions, we have transplanted metaphors. Hamlet, in particular, is everywhere. But it never quite becomes overbearing or unrealistic. The children are quite clever and well-read without being ridiculously so, and we have no trouble accepting that they've read Shakespeare.

I said this in previous review and I'll say it again: this is a book that assumes much of its readers. Frankly I think this is more of a book for adults who like reading YA than it is a book for children, if that makes sense. It can certainly be read and liked by children, of course, but it almost feels... intended for that group of adults who loves YA. In fact, that is indeed what Pamela Dean says on the back of the first book: she was disappointed when, aged 20, she reread some of her old favourite books from childhood and found them flatter and less magical and enjoyable than she remembered. So she set out to write books that would retain their magic for adults who go back to re-read them. I think she succeeds!

[Andrea Knapp · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book picks up basically where the first one left off, but it is much more exciting. There are some scenes that went on way too long and some I wish lasted longer, especially in the land of the dead. But for the most part, there's a lot more action in this one and the story moves along more quickly. But I still have just as many questions as, if not more than, I had when I finished the first book. Absolutely nothing is resolved here, and that's frustrating. I'm hoping the third book finally delivers the explanations I've been looking for.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

i would have loved this when i was twelve.

as things stand, i think i'm a little too old for it, because as in the first book there was too much of the kids squabbling over the mechanics of the secret country for my tastes. but in this one (eventually!) there were answers, and really i thought it deserved a star just for the scene in the land of the dead that cassandra clare plagiarized, which slaps in the extreme.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well. This happened.

Ok, so this book very easily built on the first book. Dean is amazing. The plot is deceptively simple, yet you feel this sense of foreboding… only you don’t know where from. Too many subtleties for my little brain, maybe? Sub plots upon sub plots. Again, maybe that’s just me. It just seems like all of the pieces are put in front of you, only you can’t figure out what you’re looking at.

My favorite character (who is no longer Patrick, who I find quite irritating now) didn’t die—even though by all accounts, Randolph should’ve. I also feel like the characters matured more, and took the world appropriately more real than before—complete with real consequences. And the plot definitely has grown steadily and had this terrible, unstoppable feeling to it that I feel the characters were really feeling by the end. It’s no longer quite a game anymore, and I can tell Ted is finally getting that through his head.

I sound really calm. I feel like there’s a lot to say. There was a lot revealed and I can’t help but be impressed by Dean’s general world and character building. Wow.

In summary, I really like this series and this is a good second book to the series. If you enjoyed the first book and are considering reading this one, you will probably enjoy it.

What some people might be uncomfortable reading about in this book because of personal opinion or belief: there’s magic, occasional cursing (usually on the low spectrum though), and someone can see “visions” of past or future. Also, if you highly despise politics, there’s politics dealt with, Secret Country politics though they be. There’s also some Shakespeare-type speaking that some might find hard to muddle through. Also, a character visits the “land of the dead.” The entire scene to me are at least reminiscent of Greek tales of the Underworld? The point is, one of the characters “dies” and visits that world, later to come back because friends bargained with the Lord of Death or something. YMMV.

Random quote:

Ted took him a little way off into the dripping trees. “I just wanted to tell you,” he said, “that I don’t want to marry Ruth, and Ruth doesn’t want to marry me. And,” he added, feeling this too brusque, “you’re welcome to be happy with her.”
It was too dark to see Randolph’s face, but he made a startled movement. “This is most convenient, my lord, seeing that I am betrothed to her.”
“You don’t act like it,” said Ted, without thinking. Then he remembered Claudia.
Randolph was quite still. “Well,” he said at last. “I am amazed. What is the Lady Ruth’s desire?”
“That,” said Ted, “you will have to take up with Ruth.”

Yeah, ok. When did that happen???

[William Leight · Rating 4 out of 5]

In “The Secret Country” and “The Hidden Land” Dean engages directly with the main problem of portal fantasy, namely how to demonstrate that the world on the other side of the portal has a reality of its own, and that the adventures the protagonists have there are therefore more meaningful than those they would have had over the course of an afternoon spent pretending to be heroic adventurers in a fantasy world. Most people’s bad memories of the Narnia books stem from the realization that Aslan is Jesus and therefore that Lewis has been in some fashion cheating his readers. But just as important is the fact that “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” ends with the children coming back from years spent in Narnia no more changed than if they had, in fact, spent the afternoon playing at defeating a wicked witch in a world full of talking animals. The result is to make it crystal clear that Narnia has no reality of its own, leaving only the thinly-disguised Christian parables. I think this may also have been contributed to “The Horse and His Boy” being my favorite of the stories for some time: since it’s set completely in Narnia, Narnia’s reality is less questionable. Dean, determined to avoid this kind of pitfall, tackles the problem head-on. Our protagonists have, over a number of summer vacations, created a complex fantasy world with an epic story. When they pass through the portal, they land in the middle of their world and their story, almost as if they were playing their game for real. Except, as they quickly discover, events like the poisoning of the king or the duel between Prince Edward and Lord Randolph in the rose garden take on a different hue when the king and Lord Randolph are people who you know and like. Most of “The Hidden Land” is taken up with the struggles of the protagonists to stop the events of their story from occurring: in a clever commentary on the power of stories, they usually fail. It doesn’t help that, although they know the broad outlines and the main characters, and can remember some of the details they invented, there is a lot to the Hidden Land that they don’t know about: it’s reality is defined by the people, history, customs and so forth that they didn’t come up with. The children are always having their ignorance despaired of, and trying to come up with ways of asking questions that will tell them things they need to know without revealing a lack of knowledge that would be utterly implausible in one born and raised in the country. They are trying to un-play their game, as it were, from the inside, without the knowledge they need, above all, the knowledge of what the other main characters are really thinking: it’s no wonder that they fail.

But Dean, after carefully and painstakingly building up the reality of the Hidden Land, then turns around and starts to undermine it. Patrick persists in believing that it’s not real, and Dean gives him some ammunition: the fact that the Hidden Land’s folksongs are English folksongs that the children all know, for instance, or the indeterminacy of the border of the Hidden Land — an essential piece of knowledge, since the Border Magic ensures that the country will be destroyed if an army crosses said border — thanks, perhaps, to the children’s lack of knowledge about surveying. When Ted returns, unscathed, from the Land of the Dead, he feels that perhaps he is just playing after all. The fact that the story continues to play out largely, if not entirely, as it did in their games also points in this direction. Most confusing of all, though, is the encounter between Ted and Laura and Claudia at the end of the book, after Ted and Laura have managed to return to our world. Claudia demonstrates a considerable degree of power over the Hidden Land: in fact, her ability to use her magical window to see anything that is going on there, and to influence the thoughts of its denizens, all while safely located in our world, is not entirely dissimilar to what Dean, as the author, is able to do. Ted’s destruction of the window thus reads a bit like Dean abjuring her authorial authority: trying, in effect, to say that the Hidden Land is only really real if she stops writing about it. The problem is that the truth is, of course, entirely opposite: the reality of the Hidden Land is a meaningful question only inside the book, and the confrontation with Claudia serves only to remind the reader of this fact. Plus, both books were already demonstrating the reality of the Hidden Land against the authorial intentions of the cousins: to add an additional authorial level only redirects our attention to the unreality of the non-portal world, which is, after all, a fictional representation of the one we live in. Dean can prove that the Hidden Land is just as real as the Midwestern town on the other side of the hedge, but only by reminding us that this town, too, is invented (for one thing, it apparently contains a witch), a rather counterproductive approach. Dean makes one last gesture towards recovering the Hidden Land’s reality by having Laura and Ted use the last couple of pages to demonstrate that they have indeed been changed by their experiences over the last two books, but the result is still to leave a funny taste in the reader’s mouth.

Nonetheless, “The Hidden Land” is stronger than the first book. Partly, this is just because more happens. We spend most of “The Secret Country” getting to know the place and its inhabitants, and trying to believe that the cousins could credibly impersonate their doppelgängers despite a completely different upbringing, extending even to the way that they speak. (This is still an occasional issue in this book: every once in a while, the contrast between the modern U.S. (if not overly slangy) diction the cousins use and the Shakespearean way in which everybody else talks becomes too glaring to be ignored.) “The Hidden Land” largely takes this impersonation, at least in its basic details (such as the accents), for granted, and gets on with the business of the plot: the dual plot, really, consisting both of the story the cousins invented and of their attempts to stop or change it. The fact that they know what’s coming gives everything an added urgency, as does their constant effort to avoid doing anything that might reveal who they really are, and, as the book goes along, an increased emphasis on the possibility of going home. Dean effectively keeps the reader guessing, too: there’s no way for the reader to find out the answers to any of the questions that baffle the cousins, and she is an expert at creating cryptically suggestive clues. The result is that when the children decide that they can’t bear to keep going — Ted, in particular, will have to kill Randolph if he stays — and manage to leave, there are still many questions left open. None of which are resolved by the confrontation with Claudia, which at best replaces them with new ones. Perhaps the sequels will provide answers, though the existence of sequels leads to further questions, such as how they come to exist, given that the ending of this book seems to foreclose the possibility of any such. Overall, an interesting and enjoyable book that is not entirely successful.

[Maki ⌒☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hidden Land takes the premise of the first book, and makes everything bigger, the way a good sequel should. The stakes were higher, and the children were thrown entirely out of their elements - Ruth and Ted especially.

All of them are so completely in over their heads that their main goal is no longer to go along for the ride, but to get out of the Secret Country as soon as humanly possible. The game kind of loses its charm when it ceases to be a game.

Where the first book focused more on the children, this book focused more on the world itself. Out of necessity, perhaps, but it was nice to finally know roughly what was going on. I didn't end up feeling nearly as lost in this book as I did in the first one. Although, as I said in my review of the first one, that may be because the story eventually puts the reader on the same knowledge level as the kids, so events actually get explained.

And while I won't go into it - much as I would like to - to avoid spoilers, I will say that the ending came out of absolutely nowhere.

I retract my statement about the books not breaking the fourth wall.

[ribbonknight · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can definitely see how this & The Secret Country were originally published as a single tome, & it probably reads better that way? Regardless, I liked this one just as much as the first. In addition to Dean's prose & her commentary on daily life ("the [people] melted away around them as cats leave the room when people began to quarrel"). I've been saying this a lot lately, but I was glad to find this & The Secret Country used so that I can reread them many times in the future. & for now, I look forward to getting my hands on The Whim of the Dragon.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 5 out of 5]

The middle child to The Secret Country trilogy, this is certainly not as strong as book as the first one; it's also somewhat shorter, which makes me wonder why it wasn't just tacked on to the first one. Unlike the stereotypical poor middle child though, this doesn't feel neglected; Dean writes elegantly, beautifully, full of grace and charm. And again, creates something dense and strange.

[Helen Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this volume much more than the first. The first was good but I felt it was all questions and no action. This one answered questions (resulting in more questions) and had a fair amount of action and danger.

[Harmonie Rainbow · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is so much potential in this series, that reading how clumsily the plot and characters are handled by the author is an exercise in disappointment and frustration.

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one so much more than the first book -- most of it was engaging and interesting and from time to time it was quite numinous. I still find Laura's POV sections a problem, though; I think she's a realistic portrait of a certain sort of shy, anxious, unhappy little kid, but rather than resolving that by having her grow into herself, Dean shows her being very, very passive (since most of the time she's too scared to take action), and then compensates for it by repeatedly making her special. Laura has plenty of room in the story to *do* things but she rarely does; things happen to her, instead -- the unicorns talk to her, she has visions, she gets to play the magical flute.... she's necessary to the story because Dean makes her necessary, but she never takes her specialness in her hands and runs with it. It's a strange choice, and I spent a lot of the book wondering why Dean was doing it -- could she not envision a version of Laura who actually decided to take meaningful action? Would it have messed up the arc of the plot if Laura went and *did things* instead of just having them happen to her? I feel like most of the pacing issues in these books are because of the sections in the 'wrong' POV -- it's always better when we're seeing things from Ted (or Ruth or Patrick's) POV, because they go and do things, whereas when the exciting plot moments are happening Laura tends to go hide in her bedroom and avoid them. If Dean wanted to surprise the readers by not showing us directly what was going on, why not just *skip ahead* instead of showing us Laura hiding and feeling bad?

For all of that, there was a lot I enjoyed here -- I feel like the preise is still very sound, and there's a good backbone despite all my disagreements with execution. I really liked the repetition of the Fence/Randolph scene that starts the first book -- it was a nice moment of uncanniness.

I probably will reread these eventually; the good parts really do shine.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still not sure about this whole series. The first book irritated me because it was half a book. This one concluded the story I guess, but not very satisfyingly. Sure, they got out and back home, but we don't really get any sort of resolution. There's a whole series of questions that Patrick asks about their adventure near the very end of this book, and it's a perfect list of all the questions the reader has, that do not get explained. I'm honestly not sure if I want to read the final book in the trilogy or not.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to this read aloud and it brought me back to the first time I read it, with the sense of children with a deep connection to literature and each other, who take themselves and their capabilities seriously but also don't know whether to commit to the portal world they find themselves in. It does a lot of good things with what kids are capable at various ages.

Now I want to hear the last one.

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this series, but sometimes the author has her characters so baffled about what is happening that the reader is baffled as well. I also cannot figure out how old any of the children are, though apparently some are very young to be doing what they do in the story. Hopefully the last book of the series will make it more clear.

[AFMasten · Rating 4 out of 5]

and so the story continues in the Secret Country, with coronations, and battles, and death and resurrection, and, finally, the smell of "cars, and dust, and rubber."

[Bree · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorites and favorites, its content is extravagant.

[Stephanie C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still waiting to find out if I like this series or not. I hope book three will help!

[meg]

How are these fantasy books for children so deeply and incredibly confusing

[Wren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very direct continuation of the first book in the series. If you liked that one then you'll like this one and vice versa. That does get into the main problem of the trilogy, though: it really doesn't take three books to tell this story. It should take one.

While things start to pick up in this one, the novelty also wears off, and takes your patience with it. The pacing in this trilogy is truly terrible, and that is such a shame because it's a series with such wonderful potential. The characters are very well-developed and there's so much to follow in every interaction. The problem is that you get bored.

I honestly wouldn't recommend this trilogy, personally. However, if you have a longer attention span than I, perhaps you'd be able to last through this book and the next one to get to the payoff. Sadly, it seems like the first book set up a promise for something that these two just couldn't deliver.

It's not entirely Dean's fault, however, as it's a common enough issue: what's entertaining in one book may not be entertaining in another. The classic blunder is to assume that a well-written and interesting book should be followed up with two more exactly like it. That's what this series does, and it's a good example of why it doesn't work. Everything that's good about this book was good about the first one, too, and should have been included there. Finishing this one and starting the third just makes the experience drag on, when it should be taken to another level or perspective. I think that's my issue with series and sequels in general.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh good—I liked this more than The Secret Country, which gives me hope that I'll like The Whim of the Dragon even more. The plot is tighter in this book and moves along at a better pace (well, a pace I liked better, anyway). We "know" the world now, so Dean can focus on the intrigue. In a way, there aren't that many surprises, since the children have been playing this story out for years before the start of the series, and they've been discussing what comes next all along. Still, watching them try to change parts of the plot and try to figure out the new bits is intriguing. I just wish this world felt more three-dimensional...or is that deliberate, reinforcing the fact that in many ways it was just a children's game?

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book in the Secret Country trilogy, The Hidden Land opens with the five cousins still playing their parts from the game they made up so long ago. Will Ted be able to change the King's mind in how battle will be waged? If not, can they persuade Randolph not to poison the King in order to "save" their country? And so forth and so on.

As in the first book, a great deal of the charm lies in watching the children try to change outcomes while dealing with the parts of their "story" personas that do not match their own. And we must admit that the story itself is fascinating. Dean did a great job in coming up with the Secret Country's world and mythology, as well as likable characters who we'd like to know. Case in point. Fence. And Randolph.

I love all three books in this trilogy and they are favorites for rereading, standing the test of time.

[Delaina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second of three books, and if you don't read them in order you're likely to get extremely lost. Five American cousins find their make-believe game is startlingly real as they find themselves living out their fantasy, but their true names, ages, and familial relationships are not the only things switched around in the Hidden Land. The confusion of symbols and un-plumbed layers from the first novel are fleshed out and more fully revealed as the kids gain a better understanding of how their well-loved game fits into their new reality--and what it means when reality doesn't match the game. This second book advances the plot and character development, and sets up the reader to anticipate the third novel.

[Evan Þ. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The portal fantasy continues much as in Dean's first book, with more sticky unpleasantness and danger, and less wonder - though still some, as the kids are faced with out-of-context threats and allies and references. We get some answers as to how their imaginary country came to be real: a wizard put it in their heads making them think it was their imagination. That's an answer, but an answer that feels wrong... and it makes me want to do it better.

But at the end, our protagonists have come to a decision that for the first time since the near-beginning makes me strongly invested in what happens next. It's not one that feels like a high adventure, but I can't fault it - and it's better than much of the book in tone.

[Krista Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Rating/Reviewing MO

The Secret Country series is an excellent story about a group of kids that are transported to a fantasy world. There they learn that their favorite game of make believe has come to life. But something is wrong. They must set things right.

This story is well written and captivating! Recommend to anyone who loves fantasy.

[Nicole Luiken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread this to my kids. This is very much the middle book in the series. Except for the last chapter, it's spent entirely in the Hidden Land. I like the push/pull between the kids' expectations from the game they played, and what actually happens.
Note: Since all five main characters are teens or younger, I'm sorting this as young adult, but some of the language has a Shakespearean flavor that requires some effort to follow. You could just as easily count it as written for adults.

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this series a few years ago and don't recall it very well now. I do know that I decided not to keep the books when I'd finished as the reality didn't quite match the promise of the premis, which is potentially very intriguing - children have to act out in reality parts that they previously pretended as a game, but with dangerous consequences that have to be actually experienced. Liked the characters and it was quite a good read but somehow didn't turn out good enough to be a 'keeper'.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picking up right where Book One, The Secret Country, left off, The Hidden Land takes the themes and dilemmas of the first installment and deepens and broadens them, raising the stakes for the kids from our world and the inhabitants of the magical kingdom alike. There is less fun and glee and more direness and pain this time around, but the writing continues excellent, so while it is not as happy a book, it is a worthy and necessary entry in the series. On to Book 3!

[Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was interrupted while reading The Hidden Land, and found it a little difficult to get back into the mood of the story for a while. The second book, as in any good trilogy, is a little darker and more melancholy, filled with uncertainty and mystery. The story progresses, but nothing is resolved yet.

[Yi-Ling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuation of book 1 as in used to be the same book then was split. Apparently. This explains the lack of new themes and the whole book being about...marching to, and then observing/taking part in a war. I still do not really understand at all the function of the Dragon King but perhaps this will be clearer upon reread. Not as good as the others imo.