A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories

by Robin McKinley

Ebook, 2014

Publication

Open Road Media Teen & Tween, Kindle Edition, 142 pages

Description

Stories from the world of The Hero and the Crown and other magical places by a New York Times-bestselling Newbery Medal winner. Robin McKinley returns to the mythical setting of The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword in this "thrilling, satisfying, and thought-provoking collection" featuring two stories set in the world of Damar, plus three other fantasy tales featuring adventurous, pragmatic, and heroic young women (Publishers Weekly). There's mute Lily, in "The Healer," who has the power to help others, and receives a startling opportunity to find her voice when a mysterious mage stumbles into town. And Queen Ruen, who is at the mercy of a power-hungry uncle until she encounters a shape-changer in "The Stagman." In "Touk's House," a maiden who has grown up with a witch and a troll has a chance to become a princess, but she must decide whether she would really live happily ever after. When a curse follows Coral to her new husband's farm in "Buttercups," the pair has a choice: Succumb to defeat or find a way to turn a disastrous enchantment into a fruitful new venture. Finally, travel to upstate New York with Annabelle. In the title story, her family moves shortly after her sixteenth birthday, and just as she starts to adjust to her new life in a small town, a plan to build a superhighway threatens her new home. But a strange box hidden in a secret attic in the new house may be the answer. This is a delightful assortment of tales from an author with "a remarkable talent for melding the real and the magical into a single, believable whole" (Booklist). … (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member jjmcgaffey

Five stories, of varying interest. The Healer, about a mute girl and an injured mage - a Luthe story, though not, as far as I can tell, a Damar one. The Stagman, which annoys me - it's written fairy-tale style, with very little personality to any of the characters, and it's too similar to Luthe &

Aerin. The princess marries for the good of the land then runs away to her true love when her duty's done...don't know, it bothers me. Touk's House - an interesting variant on Rapunzel (and a couple other fairy tales), with a touch of the same marrying-for-duty thing but it goes away and she makes her choice. Buttercups, which I like - it follows patterns of several fairy tales, but does it with plenty of personality involved. Pos and Coral are very real; so is Buttercup Hill, and the way they paid and how the cost was not destructive. I wonder what would have happened if they hadn't confessed to each other? Nothing good, I suspect. Finally, the title story. Very different in setting and somewhat in flavor; rather than fairy story set in unspecified lands, a teenager in modern America dealing with moving to a new home and a highway coming through...with just a bit of some old magic sticking its nose into matters. I like that one, too.

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LibraryThing member bluesalamanders

I like this better than Door in the Hedge (another anthology of Mckinley's short stories) - the stories here are more concrete, the characters are more realistic and easier to relate to.

LibraryThing member the1butterfly

A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories by Robin McKinley is good as you'd naturally expect. This is a collection of female centered fantasy stories, where the young women find their own abilities.

LibraryThing member CeridwynR

Interesting collection of short stories for young adults. Five different stories, four of which have a distinctly fairy tale flavour and (I think) are set in the Damar of McKinlay's Blue Sword books. I really loved Buttercups - the subversion of the expected was beautifully done and I liked the way

hard work and acceptance were the important aspects of success.My main issue with the collection was the last (title) story really didn't fit with the other tales. Set in the modern world with a magic realism tinge it clashed with the style of the others for me.

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LibraryThing member CeridwynR

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LibraryThing member phoebesmum

A collection of five short fantasies, lightweight but sweet; an enjoyable quick read.

LibraryThing member tjsjohanna

Though Ms. McKinley says she has a hard time with short stories, these five are satisfying. With the exception of "A Knot in the Grain", they are all set in a fantasy world. The first two, "The Healer" and "The Stagman" are certainly set in McKinley's world, Damar. Both feature the character of

Luthe. I found "The Healer" satisfying and "The Stagman" a little depressing. Why Ruen has to give up happiness for most of her life is beyond me! "Erana" was a unique twist on the fairytale Rapunzel, though there is no tower or long hair and Erana is free to go when she grows up. "Buttercups" was probably my favorite. I loved how Coral and Pos are both beset by doubts and worries, but they learn to turn to each other. "A Knot in the Grain" has fantasy elements, but I liked it most for how Ms. McKinley captures those feelings I had each time I moved as a child. I could relate completely to Annabelle's experiences.

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LibraryThing member Leelynn

I really liked the first four short stories in this book. The last one though, I have to admit, is my least favorite and to me personally could do without. (Just my personal opinion) Other than that, I had a great time reading this book and always am looking for it on the shelf when I am at the

library. These stories never get old to me and I love it when a book can do that without having to be the size of a dictionary!

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LibraryThing member reading_fox

short stories from Robin Mckinley. I don't really remember anything particularly about them other than the usual slightly melancholy sense of wonder that all her works inspire within me.

LibraryThing member Herenya

It was interesting reading reviews of this and comparing my reactions. It was an important reminder that readers can have completely opposing views, and that I should be careful about letting negative reviews dissuade me from reading something I otherwise think looks interesting.

"The Healer" is

possibly a Damar story. I had a very subjective reaction to it - I just didn't warm to it, and I don't think there's any objective reason why.

I really enjoyed "The Stagman" for its prose. The characters are types more than complex personalities, unnamed for much of the story and identified instead by their role or relationship. If it were a longer story, I would want complex personalities, but in a short story - especially a short story that reads like a fairytale - there's something appealing about that, about the way you are left to fill in the blanks yourself.

Both "Touk's House" and "Buttercups" are similar, in so far as that the characters' names aren't revealed until well into the story and there is a fairytale feel about them. Neither of them unfold as I expected them to. There is something lovely and gentle about the romance in "Buttercups", partly because of the way the story captures the way the farmer has not questioned his loneliness and his utter delight at unexpectedly discovering someone he wants to spend his life with.

However, "A Knot in the Grain" is my favourite, about a teenager who (reluctantly) moves house with her parents and the summer she spends borrowing books from the library, writing letters to her friends back home and slowly adjusting to her new life. It's not an almost fairytale, and it is much more about Annabelle as a person - her thoughts, feelings and relationships - than it is about what happens. What I loved most about it, apart from Annabelle's reading habits, was the way it captured being 16 and dealing with change - and the bittersweetness of change.

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LibraryThing member phyllis2779

These stories were just OK. To me they felt very YA. Very little suspense or action. The emphasis was on the fairy tale style. I've already forgotten the first stories I read in the book. The last three, Buttercups, Touk, and a Knot in the Grain, I probably remember because it was the last ones I

read. I like other things I've read by this author so this was very disappointing. Well-written but ephemeral. Actually, now that I've read a precis of each of the stories, the one I liked best was The Healer because it was set in Damar.

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