Luckily I just happened to read Deerskin recently, as well as one of Robin
McKinley's others.
They have some similar elements - two out of the three I've read are about
princesses finding a place for themselves in the world, and all of them are
about a young woman maturing in a position which is under intense public
scrutiny but is in actuality extremely isolated.
All of them have some "god out of the machine" rescuing element, and in two
of them the protagonist is majorly changed by the experience - in one she
becomes immortal.
I had bought Deerskin a few years ago on the strength of the two Damar
novels, which I reread every couple of years. I prefer novels with female
protagonists, and I especially like ones, like those, where she is battling
outside pressures to become independent and autonomous on her own terms.
In both the Damar novels there is a heterosexual relationship, but she
stands on her own feet in both of them.
However, when I first got Deerskin, I couldn't keep reading it because it
was obvious from the first few pages that her father was going to sexually
exploit her in some way. There are long periods in my life when I can't
watch programmes or read books about rape or sexual abuse and that was one
of them.
I really liked it - a gruelling read for me, but the way in which she
rebuilt herself after a shattering rape was very well written. I liked the
way McKinley showed the destructiveness of the people's worship of her
mother's beauty, which is a staple in most fairy tales, treated as normal
and harmless.
Jenny Rankine, Publicity Officer
Health Research Council of New Zealand
PO Box 5541, Auckland 1, Aotearoa New Zealand
Visit our website http://www.hrc.govt.nz/
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