Reviews with content warning for Incest - Deerskin

A very difficult story told beautifully and with great care, but it still could be triggering to many people so please heed the content warnings. McKinley handles her dark subject matter so well though, that I really enjoyed this story of growth, and I found the ending very satisfying.

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rungemaille's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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gracefully_jk's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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grace_b_3's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

4.0

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meghan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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agibson211's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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smuttymcbookface's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Princess Lissla is daughter to the most loved couple in the Kingdom. Unable to take their eyes off one another, it looks like a fairytale to everyone. Except, they, and their kingdom, overlook their only child.

When the most beautiful woman in all the Kingdoms, the Queen, dies, and makes the King promise never to remarry unless the person is more beautiful than she is, he falls into a grief. A different kingdom gift Lissla a fleethound to help with her grief, and through this fleethound, Ash, she finds strength to be seen by those she wishes.

Years later, when she's just turned 17, the King realises that she is just as beautiful as her mother was, and so demands that she marries him in three days. Despite her attempts to lock herself away, he attacks her before their marriage.

Clinging onto her last piece of strength, she leaves the castle to a forest, where she and Ash are reborn, though with lasting scars from her trauma.

Deerskin was a beautiful story, told in a fairytale narrative. It was easy to feel what the characters felt, and to understand the hurt, the loss, and the bonds that formed. In addition, it was so sweet to read about the fleethound, and how the character quirks line up exactly with the sighthounds of these ages.

I have two things that I didn't like about this story. The first is that I found it too long-winded in certain parts. Thoughts and ideas were often repeated to show a train of thought, but when this happened consistently through scenes, it became difficult to read. My second issue was with the fantastical elements; I sometimes found these quite hard to follow, or when I did follow, a little ridiculous (

such as when she bled a tree from her vagina in the throne room?

). I loved the premise of the moonwoman, and her escape through her, but some things were taken a little too far.

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